() — After 63 days of silence, the Mars Ingenuity helicopter is speaking again.
The small helicopter took to the Martian skies on April 26 for its 52nd flight, but lost contact with mission controllers before landing, creating a month-long communications blackout.
but ingenuity called home again on June 28, allaying any potential concerns about the safety and whereabouts of the first airship on another planet. However, it’s still a long time for humans here on Earth to confirm that Ingenuity landed safely.
The flight was intended to reposition the helicopter and capture images of the Martian surface.
The mission team anticipated that a communication outage could occur.
This enhanced color image from Ingenuity was taken by Perseverance on April 16. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS
This is because the Ingenuity helicopter communicates with mission control at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, relaying all messages via the Perseverance rover.
And when Ingenuity took off for Flight 52, a hill presented an obstacle that prevented the helicopter and rover from communicating with each other.
“The part of Jezero crater that the rover and helicopter are currently exploring has a lot of rugged terrain, making communications outages more likely,” Josh Anderson, Ingenuity team leader at JPL, said in a statement.
While the two robots make a dynamic duo that can investigate Mars from the surface and its atmosphere for signs of ancient life, it’s hard for them to stick together.
Ingenuity’s role as aerial scout
Ingenuity began as a technology demo to test whether a small helicopter could fly on Mars. After exceeding all expectations in five successful flights in spring 2021, Ingenuity transitioned to becoming an airborne explorer, flying ahead of the Perseverance rover and charting safe and scientifically interesting paths for the rover’s exploration.
Sometimes Ingenuity is exploring and imaging places the rover may not reach for weeks.
Once Perseverance crested the obstructive hill, the helicopter and rover had a chance to communicate and relay Ingenuity’s messages back to Earth, including data captured during its 139-second April 26 flight in the which covered a distance of 363 meters.
Ingenuity’s navigation camera captured the helicopter’s shadow on the Martian surface during its 52nd flight on April 26. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
“The team’s goal is to keep Ingenuity ahead of Perseverance, which occasionally means temporarily pushing beyond the limits of communication,” Anderson said.
“We are excited to be back in communications range with Ingenuity and to receive confirmation of Flight 52.”
What’s next for Ingenuity and Perseverance?
It’s not the first time the mission team has experienced communication outages with Ingenuity that last “an agonizingly long time,” such as the outages that occurred before the helicopter’s historic 50th flight in April, according to Travis Brown, Ingenuity’s chief engineer. at JPL.
The helicopter is also dealing with a buildup of dust on its solar panel that occurred during the Martian winter, causing the helicopter to experience a “transitional power state” that can last even as Martian summer arrives.
“This means that, much to the chagrin of your team, we’re still not done playing this high-stakes game of hide-and-seek with the frisky little helicopter,” Brown wrote on a NASA blog.
But Ingenuity has made it through landing on Mars, survived frigid nights, flew on Mars for the first time, and has made numerous record-breaking flights since, and its journey to explore Mars like never before continues.
Flight engineers are already planning another aerial excursion for the helicopter in a couple of weeks, hoping that the rest of Ingenuity’s system appears to be in good shape. Ingenuity’s upcoming flights will bring it closer to a rocky ledge that NASA is eager to explore with the Perseverance rover.
