Nasa confirms renewed contact with Mars helicopter – after nine weeks of radio silence

ingenuity
After nine weeks of radio silence: Nasa confirms renewed contact with the Mars helicopter

The small helicopter Ingenuity delivers spectacular images of Mars again and again. At the end of April he lost contact with NASA. Now he has been reinstated.

Actually, his mission was short: five flights should the small Complete Helicopter Drone Ingenuity on Mars. There were many more. Then a few weeks ago we lost contact. Nasa has now given the all-clear: Radio contact with the vehicle, also christened “Ginny”, has been restored.

Ginny left on April 26th for his 52nd flight mission, since then there has been radio silence. However, the loss of contact came as no surprise: during its flight, the solar-powered helicopter overcame a hill and landed on the other side. Due to the broken line of sight, contact with the Mars robot Perseverance broke off. And that also goes to the control center: the significantly larger robot serves as a radio relay, passing on the signals to the small drone. It wasn’t until Perseverance had climbed the hill that NASA engineers were able to communicate with Ginny again on June 28th.

Planned loss of contact

Nevertheless, the contact was eagerly awaited. The helicopter, which weighed two kilograms and was around 50 centimeters high, finally landed without human help. After a remote check, however, the all-clear was given: Ginny is fine. The data from the last flight were also successfully transmitted to earth.

“This part of Jezero Crater that the rover and helicopter are exploring has very rough terrain, which makes disconnects more likely,” explains Ingenuity team leader Josh Anderson in an article on the team’s website. “Our goal is to always let Ingenuity fly ahead of Perseverance. That can definitely push the limits of achievability.” On the last flight, Ginny was airborne for 139 seconds, covering 363 meters. The primary aim was to get pictures of the terrain, which was difficult for the rover.

Great success

Ginny has long since exceeded the expectations of its creators. Its objective was actually to complete five test flights in the 30 days after landing on Mars. The researchers wanted to find out whether you could even get an aircraft into the air in the thin atmosphere of Mars. Their expectations were already exceeded in the first flights. Already on the third mission Ginny flew further than hoped, on the fourth he exceeded the longest expected flight time. Since then, the small helicopter itself has become an important tool in Mars exploration. The next flight is already planned. Ginny is to explore a possible new operation area for the big brother Perseverance. It’s supposed to start in a few weeks.

Source: NASA,