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.
If you ve got a pair of 3D or red/blue glasses leftover from a trip to the movies, you are in for a treat. You can now watch NASA s Mars helicopter, Ingenuity, soaring across the landscape of the Red Planet in glorious 3D. You can watch it rise up and fly 50 meters (164 feet) from the Wright Brothers airfield on its third flight as if you were standing on the surface of Mars itself and watching.
The video was recorded from Perseverance s Mastcam-Z instrument, a zoomable dual-camera located on the rover’s mast. The camera is capable of stereo-imaging, which allowed scientists here on Earth to turn the slightly different perspective into an immersive view of Mars.
New 3D video gives sensation of standing on Mars (Photo via NASA/YouTube)
If you thought watching NASA s Ingenuity Helicopter fly across the Martian sky last month was exciting, you re in for a real treat.
Engineers at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration rendered the historic third flight in 3D, lending what the agency called dramatic depth to the short trip as the chopper lifts into the air, zips off screen, and returns moments later for landing.
The zoomable dual-camera Mastcam-Z imager, located on the Perseverance rover s mast, provides the amber view you see in NASA s videos (as well as key data to help engineers navigate and scientists choose interesting rocks to study). Frames of the original film, stitched together by Jet Propulsion Laboratory imaging scientist Justin Maki & Co., were reprojected to optimize viewing in an anaglyph an image seen in 3D when viewed through color-filtered glasses.
Seeing NASA s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter Fly in 3D
Ingenuity Flies in 3D: After the Mastcam-Z imager aboard NASA’s Perseverance rover captured Ingenuity’s third flight on April 25, the frames of the video that was stitched together were then reprojected to optimize viewing in an anaglyph, or an image seen in 3D when seen through color-filtered glasses. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS. Download video ›
A new video of the helicopter’s third flight gives viewers the sensation of standing on the Red Planet and seeing the action firsthand.
When NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter took to the Martian skies on its third flight on April 25, the agency’s Perseverance rover was there to capture the historic moment. Now NASA engineers have rendered the flight in 3D, lending dramatic depth to the flight as the helicopter ascends, hovers, then zooms laterally off-screen before returning for a pinpoint landing. Seeing the sequence is a bit like standing on the Martian surface next to