Mars helicopter photographs Perseverance rover

The American space agency's Ingenuity Mars helicopter has photographed the Perseverance rover.

The one-tonne robot, which acts as the drone's radio base-station, is seen nestled in the upper-left corner of a newly released image.

The picture was acquired by Ingenuity during its third demonstration flight on Sunday, according to BBC News.

At the time, the mini-helicopter was about 85m from the rover and flying laterally at an altitude of 5m.

Sunday's sortie was the most ambitious yet for for Ingenuity and saw it travel 100m over the course of 80 seconds.

Nasa said the drone's next two flights, to be conducted in the coming days, will be its last and will push the chopper technology very hard in terms of speed and distance travelled.