Battle for communications: NASA engineers coped with an unexpected loss of communication with a Martian helicopter
NASA was able to restore communication with the Ingenuity mini-helicopter located on Mars. Earlier, fears arose about his possible «death» due to an unexpected failure. After transmitting instructions to the Perseverance rover, the team received a signal from Ingenuity. Engineers are currently analyzing new data to determine the cause of the failure during the helicopter's 72nd flight.
Good news: we have re-established contact with #MarsHelicopter after instructing @NASAPersevere to continue listening to Ingenuity's signal. The team is analyzing the data to better understand the unexpected communications drop on the 72nd flight, NASA JPL reported on page X.
Ingenuity — the first autonomous helicopter on another planet. Weighing just 1.8 kilograms, it was sent to Mars along with the Perseverance rover in 2021. Data from Ingenuity is transmitted back to Earth via Perseverance, but communications were lost during Thursday's test flight.
Ingenuity reached an altitude of 12 meters on this flight, which allowed it to test the helicopter's systems after a previous unscheduled landing. However, during the descent the connection was cut off prematurely. The NASA team noted that Perseverance was temporarily outside the helicopter's visual range at the time, but were considering moving closer for a visual inspection. There have been previous instances of loss of communication with Ingenuity, including an extended period last year.
Ingenuity has long surpassed its original goal of making five missions over 30 days to Mars. During the entire time he covered approximately 17 kilometers.