NASA’s Ingenuity Helicopter Captures Mars Sunset

Washington: NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter captured a sunset shot on the Red Planet during its 45th flight.Space. The tiny helicopter’s high-resolution color camera captured the Sun on February 22, reports com.org. The image shows the sun hanging slightly above the horizon at the top of the hill in the distance, caught in the process of setting on Ingenuity’s 714th Martian day, or sol.

The rays shining in the photo help illuminate the rolling alien landscape of sand and rocks inside Jezero Crater. The Ingenuity helicopter landed with NASA’s Perseverance rover on the floor of Jezero Crater on February 18, 2021. It became the first rotorcraft ever to make powered flight beyond Earth. Weighing only 1.8 kg, it has proved that aerial exploration on Mars is possible despite the planet’s thin atmosphere.

It was originally tasked with only a few test flights to prove its pioneering technology, but it has exceeded NASA’s expectations. space. Ingenuity has now flown a total of 46 times, with an accumulated distance of 10.1 km, reports Ingenuity.com. Flights 45 and 46 took place only three days apart on 22 and 25 February. Occasionally, however, it captures a slice of the Martian sky, giving a new perspective on the Red Planet.

Recently, NASA’s Curiosity rover captured ‘sun rays’ for the first time on Mars. The rays were imitated as the sun descended over the horizon on 2 February, ‘rays of light illuminating a bank of clouds.’ They are also known as crepuscular rays, from the Latin word for ‘twilight’. According to NASA, “This was the first time the Sun’s rays had been seen so clearly on Mars.”