The theater of operations for #Flight52 of #Ingenuity : up over Mount Julian and down into Fall River Pass.
The animation shows a map with some plausible paths for #Perseverance (green dashed lines), line-of-sight between the rover and the landed heli (red), visibility from the estimated landing location, ground profile, my old landing prediction (green), and the new estimate (yellow). The line-of-sight is obstructed by Mount Julian by 6-7m
The map shows the official flight path and an estimated location and field-of-view (cyan) of the RTE 51-7 image posted earlier.
EDIT: The flight path may be an indication of the path #Perseverance may follow when it departs Mount Julian, as the almost flat top of that hill appears to be smoother than other path choices.
Fresh down from Ingenuity's 51st flight, it photographed all of Belva Crater with the rover on the rim of it. Rover tracks are also visible. At the time the photo was taken, Perseverance was around 180 meters (590 feet) from Ingenuity. Some EDL landing debris is also visible on the bottom portion of the image. This is likely some MLI (Mylar) blanket insulation from the descent stage.
An instance of robotic life on Mars. #Perseverance (up left corner, animated zoom) and Belva Crater, seen by #Ingenuity during #Flight51. The tracks the rover made a few sols ago can be seen crossing from right to left near 1/3 from the top.
Here is #Ingenuity's #Flight51 stabilized with reference the landing spot. This version makes it easier to see how the heli chooses where is less hazardous to land and then diverts to that spot.
Estimated location of #Ingenuity at its #Flight51 landing. Distance covered 135m, 50m shorter than announced.
Either the #MarsHelicopter flew a complex, i.e. non straight line path, or it flew a shortened path due to temperature / battery conditions. That's just a guess based on previously posted thoughts.
Visibility plot from estimated landing 51, together with ground profile along the line-of-sight.
Despite the ~220m distance, #Perseverance received the last image when #Ingenuity had landed; the new location of the #MarsHelicopter is more than 4m below the local horizon created by what I believe is Mount Julian, which is blocking the view
If I were a few years, err... decades, younger I'd be eager to do a PhD on UHF Land Mobile Radio propagation on #Mars 🤓 😍
#Ingenuity is presently experiencing some of the coldest sols since last October, with max avg abt -25°C through the week but reaching as low as -28°C max during daylight on some sols.
The animation shows a few of the last flights of the #MarsHelicopter. It's notable that all those flights occurred during max temperatures around -20°C, which might explain why #Flight51 has most probably not taken place yet. #NASA's weather feed updates lag by a few sols
If #Ingenuity hasn't yet flown #Flight51, then that's where it should be, just 0.7m below the local horizon. Not in view, but nice to know where it is 😀 🙃
#Ingenuity may have difficulties waking up in the morning and accumulating enough power in its batteries for a 180m #Flight51. High temperatures in the last 10 days averaged -23.5°C with the lowest high at -30.5°C.
Much of the energy accumulated is spent for keeping the electronics warm during daylight, while at night, with temperatures around -80°C, the heli is unable to stay warm and falls into a coma.