Free Astronomy Magazine May-June 2021

5 MAY-JUNE 2021 ASTRO PUBLISHING T his animation shows each step of the Inge- nuity helicopter deploy- ing from the belly of NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover from March 26 to April 3, 2021. The final image shows the helicopter on the ground after the rover drove about 13 feet (4 meters) away. [NASA/JPL-Caltech] N ASA’s Ingenuity helicopter does a slow spin test of its blades on April 8, 2021, the 48 th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. This image was captured by the Mastcam-Z on NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover. [NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU] T he Ingenuity Mars Helicopter’s carbon fiber blades can be seen in this video taken by the Mastcam- Z instrument aboard NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover on April 8, 2021, the 48 th Martian day, or sol, of the mis- sion. The four blades are arranged into two 4-foot-long (1.2-meter- long) counter-rotating rotors that can spin at roughly 2,400 rpm. The video shows the blades performing a wiggle test before the actual spin-up to ensure they were working properly. [NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU]