When NASA’s Mars helicopter Ingenuity took off on September 24, cameras on the vehicle detected a light-colored piece of debris attached to one of its legs. The residue fell from the helicopter after a while.
The residue, thought to be a piece of cloth, looks like bits of toilet paper that stick to the bottom of our feet as we walk down the road on Earth. NASA calls such debris “alien debris objects” (FOD).
The navigation camera is located at the bottom of the helicopter and in the images it takes, only one of the four legs of the helicopter is usually visible. The piece, which was stuck to one of the legs during takeoff, is not visible in the images taken after a while. This suggests that it fell to the Martian floor.
NASA said in a statement that this piece of debris did not cause any damage to the helicopter. The image in question was taken from the 33rd flight of the Ingenuity helicopter atop the Perseverance survey vehicle.
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