Ingenuity snaps picture of Perseverance during its 51st flight on Mars – Behind The Black – Robert Zimmerman

On April 22, 2023 the Mars helicopter Ingenuity completed its fifty-first flight on Mars, flying 617 feet west for about 136 seconds at an altitude of about 39 feet. As has been routine for the past dozen or so flights, all these numbers were slightly higher than the flight plan, probably because the helicopter took extra time to find a good landing spot.

The panorama above, cropped, reduced, and enhanced to post here, was taken by Ingenuity about halfway through the flight. Unlike the black and white images that the helicopter takes looking straight down, this color image looks at an oblique angle of 22 degrees below the horizon. The colors are not corrected. The view looks east, looking backwards into Belva Crater. You can see Perseverance on the left, with its tracks cutting across the frame….