After a 63-day radio silence, NASA has heard back from the Mars helicopter Ingenuity and has now declared its 52nd flight, carried out on April 26, a success. The US space agency has now announced that he would not be able to report for a long time after that because of the conditions on site. Ingenuity landed behind a hill in such a way that he was temporarily unable to establish radio communications with the Perseverance rover. A plan for re-establishing contact had already been prepared and therefore worked successfully on June 28th. With this, one can now prepare the 52nd flight of the aircraft.
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More and more radio silence
The current locations of Perseverance and Ingenuity
(Picture: NASA)
“63 days is a long time to wait for the results of a flight”, NASA now admits. But the incoming data shows that everything is fine with the helicopter. If the remaining tests are positive, it could fly again in the next few weeks. Ingenuity relies on Perseverance as relays to communicate with Earth. Only the rover can communicate with Earth via probes orbiting Mars and forward data or receive commands. Both devices are currently in much more difficult terrain than in the first few months after landing. Josh Anderson from the Ingenuity team says that longer radio silences from the helicopter are therefore to be expected.
Ingenuity had come to Mars with Perseverance in February 2021 and was only intended to prove that motorized aircraft could take off there. He did it impressively and now Ingenuity accompanies the rover on its mission. A year ago, NASA temporarily lost contact with the helicopter. Due to the increasing dust in the atmosphere, it had not been able to collect enough solar energy during the day. That’s why the time had been put back at night, which is why he radioed at the wrong time. Before flight #50 there was a break of days. NASA is already assuming that the mission could stop at any time.
(mho)