NASA RELEASES 3D VIDEO OF INGENUITY MARS HELICOPTER’S 3RD FLIGHT
MICHAEL MCCABE
MAY 31ST, 2021



On April 25, 2021, the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter performed its third test flight. Recently, NASA engineers converted a video of the flight into anaglyph 3D.

As part of the third flight, the Perseverance Rover’s Mastcam-Z, which is a state-of-the-art dual-camera, zoomable imaging system, captured a video of Ingenuity. NASA recently converted it into 3D. You can view this on NASA’s YouTube channel using red and cyan 3D glasses.

Justin Maki, who is an imaging scientist for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, has headed the team that rendered the video imaging of Ingenuity’s third flight and had it converted to anaglyph, which is when the frames are optimized for viewing when seen through color-filtered glasses.

“The Mastcam-Z video capability was inherited from the Mars Science Laboratory MARDI (MArs Descent Imager) camera,” Maki said in a NASA news release. “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.”

This adds an element of depth to another aspect of the historical moments being captured on the red planet’s surface. It also gives the viewer the feeling of standing on the surface of Mars, with the flight happening right in front of their eyes.

NASA and JPL are continuing to pushing the envelope with the Ingenuity. Now that its primary technology demonstration mission is completed, the team has transitioned into an operations demonstration phase.