this post was submitted on 25 Jan 2024
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NASA's Perseverance Mars Rover
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On the plains of Jezero, the secrets of Mars' past await us! Follow for the latest news, updates, pretty pics, and community discussion on NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's most ambitious mission to Mars!
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Actually i wonder if they're erring on the side of caution, because if the helicopter messes up during flight it could hit the rover if its nearby. (Is there a rover or other device nearby?)
Not close enough - After the drive on Sol 1042 they are 806.16 meters (2644.87 ft) apart. The record flight distance was just 708.91 meters (2325.83 ft). However they wont be flying it again. They lost ~25 % of that one rotor (JPL engineering in the teleconference) and even if the rotor was still in balance (highly unlikely) the loss of 25% of a rotor, means it could not gain lift in the thin atmosphere at full speed. They plan on talking to the rover while they drive out of the crater in the months ahead as there is a ton of engineering data to garner: Solar cell generation, battery performance data, radio signal propagation as well as imaging the terrain for change (science), plus I'm sure they'll be thinking of a few other things it could do...
Did you read the post? It states the rover is too far to even attempt taking an image of the helicopter, so makes sense that they aren't erring on the side of caution because of proximity.
Edit: sorry, I mistook top comment for post body.
I think it's close to a kilometer away.