I held my breath for a moment on January 18, when scientists announced that they had lost contact with the Perseverance rover’s friend helicopter, Ingenuity.
Ingenuity was nearing the completion of its 72nd flight. In this case, the takeoff far exceeded the “borrowed time” standard. Because this powerful spacecraft was originally built for only maximum flight time. 5 flights.the fate of Originality and ingenuity was quite uncertain For a while.
However, Ingenuity Communication has officially been restored. It has ground control and continues to push the boundaries of what scientists once thought it would need to survive. According to NASA on January 20th Post to X (formerly Twitter), Perseverance conducted lengthy listening sessions to pinpoint Ingenuity’s signals. “The team is reviewing new data to better understand the unexpected loss of communications during Flight 72,” the post said.
Related: NASA loses contact with Ingenuity Mars helicopter
Ingenuity launched onto the surface of Mars on July 30, 2020, along with the Perseverance rover. Ingenuity landed on its target less than a year later, and immediately began a mission to fly over Mars to gather information about whether it could control the aircraft in flight, first and foremost. A vehicle in a world with a different gravity and atmosphere than Earth.
Thanks to Ingenuity’s success, scientists concluded that such a feat is actually possible. But after his five flights, planned around this particular mission, it became clear that Ingenuity had much more capability left. It flew on…and flew on…and as we watch, it completed its spectacular 72nd flight. Since then, its purpose has also expanded significantly, playing a calm and important role. image Perseverance is tasked with exploring areas of Mars. This area is known as Jezero Crater, and is thought to have once been flooded with water.
The small helicopter communicates with NASA ground control stations over the Deep Space Network, the classic line through which mass space missions communicate with scientists on Earth.
All seemed well as the spacecraft made its 72nd hop over Mars’ red surface. The spacecraft climbed to its highest expected altitude of 40 feet (12 meters) and successfully communicated its ascension status to Perseverance, NASA said. However, during the descent, “communications between the helicopter and the rover ended early before landing,” officials said in a statement. statement.
Nevertheless, I (and I’m sure many others around the world) can stop holding my breath because this glitch is all in the past. We hope we get some answers as to why this situation happened in the first place, but in the meantime, Ingenuity continues to prove its resilience.