NASA’s first color photo from the Mars Ingenuity helicopter shows us the Red Planet’s reds

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  • April 25, 2021

Mars is often referred to as the “Red Planet” because of the rusty, reddish-orange sandscape blanketing the planet. That comes into sharp focus in our first color photo snapped by the Mars Ingenuity helicopter.

NASA's first color photo from the Mars Ingenuity helicopter shows us the Red Planet's reds

Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech

That was taken about 17 feet above the ground. You can clearly see the sandy red-orange Martian surface. And if you look at the bottom of the image, you’ll clearly see Ingenuity’s shadow, with two of its spindly legs visibly jutting out from it’s rectangular body.

Those patterns in the ground that look like tracks are in fact… tracks left by the Perseverance rover, the remote-operated research vehicle that carried Ingenuity safely to Mars. Once it deposited its flying robot friend the Perseverance headed off to a new location, first to monitor the helicopter for a month and then to proceed with its other duties. Read more…

More about Nasa, Mars, Perseverance, Science, and Space

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NASA’s first color photo from the Mars Ingenuity helicopter shows us the Red Planet’s reds