New location for #Perseverance on Sol 1144, RMC 52.1950.
This may be the last location visible by #Ingenuity's RTE camera, as the rover has now reached the theoretical limit of its field-of-view (cyan line). The #MarsHelicopter has been programmed to capture one RTE image every sol for as long as it is able to wake up every sol perform its routine of gathering environmental and system data, as a stationary testbed.
New location for #Perseverance on Sol 1143, RMC 52.1700, presumably still within #Ingenuity's field-of-view. It appears there may be as many as 3 frames of the rover crossing the FOV of the color RTE camera of the #MarsHelicopter, now a stationary testbed collecting images, temperature and other data on a solly basis from its final location at Vallinor Hills.
#Perseverance moved to the center of the area which is most probably visible by #Ingenuity, and it could appear in one or more of the color RTE images the #MarsHelicopter is capturing every sol, if everything is going according to plan.
#Perseverance at last turned its SUPERCAM telescope to #Ingenuity. That's from a 500m distance. The smudge between the heli and its footprints on the left is dust or some other SUPERCAM flaw that exists in all images.
The glint from the metallic foot joint is noticeable.
Processed, cropped SUPERCAM_RMI
looking NNE (29°) from RMC 52.0870
Sol 1139, LMST: 12:31:58
#Perseverance's team taking a look back at the #MarsHelicopter, which had been a companion of their rover for the past 3 years on Mars and is now forced to stay behind.
Processed, leveled MCZ_LEFT, FL: 110mm
looking NNE (29°) from RMC 52.0870
Sol 1138, LMST: 13:27:55
#Perseverance seems to be determined to reach Bright Angel as soon as possible, even if it has to do it in short drives every sol, through rocky ground.
If the #MarsHelicopter#Ingenuity does take an RTE picture every Martian morning as stated, then it will most probably capture the rover as it descends slowly the slope of Neretva riverbank. The only question then is when we will see those images.
What's really exciting about the drive down the slope of the Neretva riverbank is that at some point along the way, maybe within a week or two from now, the rover will be visible by #Ingenuity's RTE camera, at the top right corner of an RTE image, as seen in this graphic by @stim3on where I marked a possible appearance with "future Perseverance".
This image shows the actual inclination of the ground at RMC 52.0130, the current location of #Perseverance on Sol 1131, and, maybe, why the trip to Bright Angel down the ancient riverbank and into the sandy Neretva riverbed might be risky.
Map follows
Processed, undistorted, leveled NAVCAM_RIGHT quick mosaic
looking SW (218°) from RMC 52.0120
Sol 1131, LMST: 13:20:47
Which way to go?
White route leads to Bright Angel.
Green route leads inland and eventually upward toward the cater rim. The photo shows the (guessed) start of the green route.
I believe we can now reconstruct the last moments of #Ingenuity's #Flight72 with some certainty. The actual trajectory may be a little more complicated, e.g. turning while hopping, but we'll never know.
EDIT: there is a new theory about Flight 71, see comments.
Animation
Processed MCZ_RIGHT, FL: 110mm
looking NNE (16°) from RMC 52.0000
Sol 1130, LMST: 16:19:24
Maybe one of our last images of #Ingenuity, if one can call those few pixels an "image" of the #MarsHelicopter. There haven't been any SUPERCAM images from this new angle so far, so such wide FOV NAVCAM images is all that we have.
Quick NAVCAM_LEFT mosaic
looking from RMC 51.4692
Sol 1123, LMST: 11:16:05
"[T]he helicopter is ready for its final act: to serve as a stationary testbed, collecting data that could benefit future explorers of the Red Plan
[…]
The team has calculated Ingenuity’s memory could potentially hold about 20 years’ worth of daily data."
It appears as if #Perseverance wants to change route away from the riverbank edge and tries to find a clear path for its journey to Jezero's rim, in which case the Bright Angel target may have been abandoned.
The green dashed line shows a possible route, after tosol's new drive to RMC 51.4692. The new path (double white stitch) is a guess.
#Ingenuity may be marginally visible again, but will disappear for a long time if the green route is to be followed.
#Ingenuity's location is indeed visible, especially the western side of the ripple where apparently it first touched down, though the helicopter itself is too small to be discernible in a NAVCAM image.
Processed, enlarged, cropped NAVCAM_LEFT
looking from RMC 51.4692
Sol 1122, LMST: 14:50:56
I reprocessed the Sol 1110 Ingenuity image with AI-upscaling to improve visual fidelity.
As @65dBnoise already noted, there seems to be disturbed sand on the other side of the sand ripple. We are still hoping for SuperCam images of the area to get a better understanding of what happened. https://mastodon.social/@65dBnoise/112219066878951407
• Stop at 3: The SE marks seemed to be much deeper than the rest in previous SUPERCAM images. That might indicate that after bouncing (2) on its southernmost legs, the heli gained opposite angular momentum, and hit the ground hard with its eastern - northeastenmost legs and stopped.
I'm hopeful more SUPERCAM images were acquired during Sols 1110-1114 (closest rover approach). The #MarsHelicopter team has promised a detailed description of what they think happened.
On Sol 1115 #Perseverance moved yet again to a new location, RMC 51.3152, 50m down the predicted path, and stopped again at the middle of a regolith ripple. It's now ~400m S of #Ingenuity which is hidden from view. No SUPERCAM image of the #MarsHelicopter has been downlinked yet.
Processed, undistorted, leveled NAVCAM_RIGHT mosaic
looking NNW (327°) from RMC 51.3152
Sol 1115, LMST: 13:11:43
There are some new marks visible on the regolith ripple, that were previously hidden behind the crest. This will definitely change the way the #Flight72 landing events have been interpreted by the #MarsHelicopter team.
Zoomed-in, processed MCZ_RIGHT, FL: 110mm
looking E and down from RMC 51.2578
Sol 1110, LMST: 12:02:00
#Ingenuity will be visible from different angles along #Perseverance's route to Bright Angel, although the rover will be increasingly more distant from the #MarsHelicopter . Its current location is about as close as it will ever get to it so, naturally, a series of MCZ and SUPERCAM images should be expected to be captured.
Here is a map that shows a predicted route to Bright Angel which is presumed to be the rover's next target:
New location for #Perseverance on Sol 1110, possibly an intermediate one, ~20m W and right in the middle of the area with visibility to #Ingenuity. This location may be the closest the rover will ever get to the #MarsHelicopter and have it in full view.
It seems to have stopped and backed off a little in front of another rego-ripple.
Processed FRONT_HAZCAM_LEFT_A
looking WSW (246°) from RMC 51.2794
Sol 1110, LMST: 13:11:48
Credit: #NASA/JPL-Caltech/65dBnoise
#Perseverance moved again on Sol 1109 to RMC 51.2578, and as expected #Ingenuity is again visible, this time from a different angle and a closer distance, ~375m:
Quick NAVCAM_RIGHT mosaic, heavily processed, undistorted, cropped
looking NW (312°) from RMC 51.2578
Sol 1109, LMST: 13:31:02
"[U]sing Ingenuity on Mars to test our macro capabilities: flying higher and faster, landing at various speeds, and generally expanding the flight envelope to retire the associated risk for future Martian rotorcraft. The holy grail, however, is understanding the microscale – […] knowing how it flies faster."
That and more in a new blog post by Martin Cacan, Chief Pilot, and Shannah Withrow-Maser, Rotorcraft Aeromechanics Lead
This map shows where along the edge of the ancient riverbank to expect #Ingenuity to be visible again by #Perseverance's masthead cameras, NAVCAM, MCZ and SUPERCAM. Dark areas have no visibility to the #MarsHelicopter.
On Sol 1100 #Perseverance drove 33m to a new location, 18m WSW, apparently trying to avoid a sandy patch south of the rocky top in front of it. It's now 373m away from #Ingenuity, but the #MarsHelicopter is still not in view.
Map follows.
Processed, undistorted, leveled, cropped NAVCAM_LEFT mosaic
looking from RMC 51.0644
Sol 1100, LMST: 15:52:25