2023-07-03 20:20:00
NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter, which operates on Mars, showed signs of life after 63 days in silence, recording its 52nd flight on June 28, last Wednesday, announced the American space agency. NASA had lost contact with the device as it descended toward the surface of Mars after its April 26 flight.
The communication problem was due to an inconveniently positioned hill between Ingenuity and the Perseverance rover. Ingenuity relies on Perseverance to deliver its messages to Earth, using antennas to exchange data at about 100 kilobits per second. Data is routed from the antenna facing Ingenuity to the rover’s main computer before being transferred to Earth via an orbiting spacecraft.
“The portion of Jezero Crater that the rover and helicopter are currently exploring has rough terrain, which makes communications interruptions more likely,” Ingenuity team leader Josh Anderson said in a statement from the space agency.
Since communication was interrupted more than two months ago, NASA’s mission control has been waiting for the results of the Ingenuity flight, which sought to capture images of the surface of Mars for the rover’s science team. During the flight, Ingenuity reached 363 meters above the surface, for a total of two minutes and 19 seconds.
The Ingenuity team is currently conducting tests on the helicopter to ensure it is ready for another mission in the coming weeks. Flight 53 will serve as a temporary landing strip to the west of where the rover and its helicopter are located. From that point, the team plans to conduct another westward flight, towards a new area near a rock formation that the rover wants to explore.
NASA has had communication problems with Ingenuity in the past, but the helicopter is doing well considering it was designed for a one-month technology demonstration. Ingenuity landed on Mars in February 2021, being carried inside the Perseverance rover. On April 19 of that year, the 48 cm tall, 1.8 kg helicopter became the first powered aircraft to take off from the surface of another planet.
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