Another sol, another drive for #Perseverance. The rover is approaching the northern edge of the rocky Margin Unit, getting closer to where #Ingenuity is located after its eventful #Flight72, but it still has no line-of-sight to the #MarsHelicopter. It may be in a better position for a first look in a sol or two, as seen in the visibility plot below.
For #Ingenuity fans only 😀 , here are three locations that #Perseverance could reach in the next 1, 2 or 3 sols, if it doesn't stop for other reasons, and if its AutoNav software behaves itself 😎
Green areas should have line-of-sight to the #MarsHelicopter. Distances from the heli are marked in blue.
@stim3on
Given the 6.2° and 1.08° HFOVs for MCZ (width 1608px) and SUPERCAM (width 2048px), and a distance of ~400m, the horizontal size (1.2m) of the blades, if perpendicular to the incident optical axis, would be 44px and 326px respectively. At an estimated closest approach of 330m, that would be 54px and 395px respectively. It looks like SUPERCAM could provide some useful visual detail.
@65dBnoise Thank you! I'm hoping for some clear SuperCam images! This is probably a good time to update my calibration pipeline to work with SuperCam images :)
@65dBnoise Yeah that looks plausible.
I'm trying to identify the orientation of Ingenuity and I agree with your assessment that the RTE camera is likely pointed south.
Here is a comparison of visible features between the post Flight72 and Flight70 image. I believe I can identify some peaks from the crater rim which would indicate that RTE is indeed pointing South. It seems likely that Ingenuity is rolled to the left quite a bit, likely due to the sand ripple it's sitting on.
@stim3on
That means that at some point after closest approach, #Ingenuity may be lucky enough to capture #Perseverance in the right top corner of an RTE image. 😀
@stim3on
There is always something more to expect from #Ingenuity 😀. Even when it finally dies, if it ever does die 🙃, we'll be finding it in new #HiRISE imagery saying hello to us 😆
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