Watch NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter Fly in 3D

After the zoomable dual-camera Mastcam-Z imager aboard NASA’s Perseverance rover captured the third flight of the agency’s Ingenuity Mars helicopter on April 25, 2021, Justin Maki, an imaging scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, led the team that stitched the images into a video. The frames of the video were then reprojected to optimize viewing in an anaglyph, or an image seen in 3D when viewed with color-filtered glasses. If you don’t have 3D glasses, you can make your own at home: A 2-D video of this same flight that does not require special glasses is available at Arizona State University in Tempe leads the operations of the Mastcam-Z instrument, working in collaboration with Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego. A key objective for Perseverance’s mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet’s geology and past climate, pave the way f