Watch NASA¡¯s Ingenuity Helicopter Fly On Mars And It Looks Unreal

NASA has made several historic feats with its Perseverance and Ingenuity launch, whether it¡¯s the rover successfully moving around the red planet and collecting data or the Ingenuity helicopter achieving greater heights with every flight.

NASA

Also Read: NASA's Ingenuity Mars Helicopter Designed By IIT Alumni For Historic Flight

And now, NASA has shared a video of Ingenuity flying on Mars, however, this video is special as to help people experience it with more depth and realism, NASA has shared this video in 3D.

To experience the video in all its glory, you¡¯ll need anaglyph 3D glasses which are really inexpensive and readily available on e-commerce sites. In case you don¡¯t have the 3D glasses, you can make one yourself by following this NASA tutorial here.

This video is of the third flight of the Ingenuity helicopter that took place on April 25 was captured by the Perseverance rover. Engineers at NASA have now rendered the flight in 3D, giving viewers the feeling that they¡¯re right on the red planet.

The video shows the helicopter ascends in the Martian atmosphere, hover for a few seconds and move laterally to the right, and moments later, returning back and landing at the very spot it began its journey.

The video was captured by the cameras on the mast/head of the rover -- the dual-camera Mastcam-Z. The camera not just produces imagery for all that the rover discovers, it also is helpful in navigation as well as choosing what interesting rocks they have to study.

Also Read: NASA Mars Helicopter Ingenuity Completes Historic 1st Flight On Red Planet

NASA

The video was created by NASA imaging scientist, Justin Maki at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory who led the team that merged the images into a video. The frames were then converted into anaglyph 3D (the one with red/blue hues) that one can view with 3D glasses with red and blue lenses.

This isn¡¯t the first time Maki has created 3D imagery, in fact, the first-ever images in 3D were processed by images captured by the first Mars rover in 1997. However, this was the first time video of activity on mars was switched to 3D.

Also Read: NASA Shares First Aerial Photos Of Mars Captured By Ingenuity Helicopter

¡°The Mastcam-Z video capability was inherited from the Mars Science Laboratory MARDI (MArs Descent Imager) camera. To be reusing this capability on a new mission by acquiring 3D video of a helicopter flying above the surface of Mars is just spectacular.¡± He also exclaimed that the videos of the helicopter are ¡°the most extensive 3D video yet¡± from the Mastcam-Z team.

Watch the video below