Leading Up to Flight 50

May 26, 2023

This map shows the locations of NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover and its Ingenuity Mars Helicopter in the sols (Martian days) leading up to the helicopter’s 50th flight. The helicopter icon can be seen in the upper left. The rover is shown with a red dot in places where communications with the helicopter were impossible. The rover is shown with a yellow dot at its location when the Flight 50 prep sequence was transferred from rover to helicopter. The rover is shown with a green dot at its nearest point to the helicopter before Flight 50 was executed.

Ingenuity’s 49th flight occurred on April 2, 2023, the 752^nd Martian day, or sol, of the rover’s mission. The 50th flight occurred April 13, 2023, the 763^rd Martian sol of the mission.

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which is managed for the agency by Caltech in Pasadena, California, built and manages operations of the Perseverance rover.

The Ingenuity Mars Helicopter was built by JPL, which manages the project for NASA Headquarters. It is supported by NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. NASA’s Ames Research Center in California's Silicon Valley and NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, provided significant flight performance analysis and technical assistance during Ingenuity’s development. AeroVironment Inc., Qualcomm, and SolAero also provided design assistance and major vehicle components. Lockheed Martin Space designed and manufactured the Mars Helicopter Delivery System.