I want to see that little helicopter fly! I scoured the site and as yet can't find any images of it, when I thought they were going to take mutual selfies -- heli of the rover and vice versa.
The helicopter hasn't flown yet - they put it down on the ground, and they're going to run it through a lot of remote checks before flying it. IIRC it's gonna be a month or two before first flight.
I would think with the wind and sand storms that it'd be dangerous leaving it exposed for a month before you even get to use it. Does the rover park on top of it during storms for minimal protection?
Right after landing, Perseverance put Ingenuity down on the ground and drove off to give some separation.
The winds and sand aren't mechanically very strong - the Martian atmosphere isn't dense enough to transmit much force even at high wind speeds. The only real dangers are obscuring the sun (important because Ingenuity runs on solar power) and getting dust in all kinds of places. But the landing site is pretty low latitude, and it's early in northern hemisphere spring right now, so power shouldn't be a problem.
Mars isn't quite as dead as the Moon, but still - you would be surprised how well things are preserved on dead rocks. As long as you can withstand the radiation and the cold, of course.
Ah - yup, was confusing the plan with something that had happened already. Apparently the rover will drive to a better takeoff site, then go through that process.
But the helicopter will, indeed, be expected to survive on its own, not even landing back near the river.
The ground controllers themselves don't know precisely. I suspect they'll have more precise timelines in the last week before flight, but that's just a wild guess on my part.
