NASA's Ingenuity helicopter spots Perseverance rover's landing hardware debris on Mars

The Ingenuity helicopter, which recently shattered several records, has now spotted the hardware which helped it get to Mars last year. While hovering over the red planet's surface on its 26th flight, the helicopter spotted a parachute and cone-shaped component called a backshell, that protected the Perseverance rover during its ascent. According to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), the wreckage was spotted by Ingenuity when it was at an altitude of 26 feet (8 meters) when it last flew on April 19. 

The JPL shared multiple photos of the wreckage that features the entry, descent and landing gear. Interestingly, NASA has photographed landing hardware in the past including the heat shield of the Opportunity rover and the Curiosity rover's parachute. However, this is the first time that the landing wreckage has been captured in an image taken by a helicopter. 

Significance of NASA's photographs

According to NASA, the images shared by Ingenuity were requested by engineers who are working on the Mars Sample Return program. They believe that the images of the components taken from an aerial perspective may provide insight into the components' performance during the rover's entry, descent, and landing.

"Perseverance had the best-documented Mars landing in history, with cameras showing everything from parachute inflation to touchdown", JPL’s Ian Clark, former Perseverance systems engineer, said in a statement. "But Ingenuity’s images offer a different vantage point. If they either reinforce that our systems worked as we think they worked or provide even one dataset of engineering information we can use for Mars Sample Return planning, it will be amazing."

After examining the images, NASA stated that the backshell's protective coating appears to have remained intact during the atmospheric entry. Besides, many of the 80 high-strength suspension lines, visible in the image, which connected the backshell to the parachute also seems to be intact. The parachute used during Perseverance's descent measured 70.5 feet wide and was the biggest one to ever deploy on Mars. The Ingenuity was also tagged along with the rover and is acting as a guide for the rover by examining the Martian topography in advance.