The Mars helicopter Ingenuity has recovered from a harsh winterWith its 33rd flight since it and the Perseverance rover touched down on Mars in February 2021
he Mars helicopter Ingenuity has survived a challenging winter and is once again in the air.
Since returning to service after a sabbatical from June to August,on September 17,
the helicopter has completed flight 31 on September 6, flight 32
and flight 33 on September 24
For flight 33, the chopper travelled over 111 metres in just under a minute
while its route to the Jezero river delta, where it would meet up with the Perseverance rover.
However, there was an unexpected guest on board for a portion of this journey when an unknown piece of debris got itself trapped around the leg of the helicopter
It's unclear what the foreign object debris (FOD) is constructed of and where it came from because it doesn't appear to be from the helicopter.
The image below was taken by the helicopter’s navigation camera, called Navcam.