NASA has reestablished communication with its Ingenuity helicopter on Mars | |
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Travis Brown, the chief engineer of the team, explained that the radio link was lost for six Martian days, just under six Earth days and six hours, after Ingenuity's 49th flight. According to the expert, the initial loss of communication was not a significant issue. The helicopter would switch to "night survival mode" and then come out of it, making it difficult to establish daily contact around the 685th Martian day. The interruption of communication for a day or two did not concern the mission team. However, after the Perseverance rover moved to a more favorable location for communication, they still couldn't locate the Ingenuity helicopter, which started to worry the mission team. Brown emphasized: "Over 700 sols of operations on Mars, we have never experienced a complete loss of radio link. Even in the worst conditions, we always saw signs of activity." However, on the 761st Martian day and the following day, the team received a response from the helicopter, and then it "dropped off the line" again. The mission team realized that the issues were due to a ridge separating the rover and the helicopter, so the Perseverance rover moved to the next location to address them. The survival of Ingenuity and the reestablishment of communication were important for the rover's safe navigation through narrow channels in the dried-up river delta of the Jezero Crater. It was crucial for Ingenuity to fly ahead and conduct checks. The team on Earth managed to upload a flight plan to Ingenuity. Brown said: "It would be an understatement to say that the helicopter team breathed a sigh of relief seeing a successful flight telemetry on the 763rd Martian day." | |
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