NASA's tiny Mars Helicopter surveys intriguing ridgeline near ancient river delta: See Pics

During its recent flight, NASA's Ingenuity Mars Helicopter scouted an intriguing ridgeline near the ancient river delta in Mars' Jezero Crater. The rotorcraft imaged the Martian ridgeline to provide Perseverance Mars rover scientists with a closer look at the sloping outcrop.

The ridgeline, called "Fortun Ridge" is a geologic feature of interest because data collected from orbit, and at a distance by the Mars rover, indicates it is the boundary between the two major rock units on the crater floor.

The science team will now compare the Flight 27 images of the ridgeline with data collected by both Ingenuity and Perseverance of an angled ridgeline nicknamed “Artuby” in the South Seitah region of the crater. This comparison may help team scientists better understand the history of the crater floor and, possibly, the forces that were at play in this part of Jezero Crater billions of years ago.

"Ingenuity not only provides imagery from an aerial perspective but allows our team to be in two places at once on Mars. Sending the rover to survey and prospect in one location while launching the helicopter to survey another hundred of meters away is a great time-saver," said Ken Farley of Caltech, Perseverance’s project scientist.

Prior to this, the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter surveyed the parachute and the cone-shaped backshell that helped the Perseverance rover safely land on the Red Planet with the helicopter attached to its belly.

Built and managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter landed on the planet's Jezero Crater on February 18, 2021. The helicopter was planned to complete no more than five flights, but it has complete 27 and now its flight operations have been extended through September 2022. 

Scouting for the rover 👀#MarsHelicopter completed Flight 27 on April 23 and surveyed a ridgeline for @NASAPersevere’s science team. Data from this geologic feature of interest indicate it’s a major boundary between two rock units on the crater floor. https://t.co/oppJoCFjeo pic.twitter.com/sekRJ4ozL8

— NASA JPL (@NASAJPL) May 4, 2022