NASA has restored contact with its Mars helicopter after 63 days of silence. The communications dropout, however, wasn't unexpected.
The last time NASA had contact with Ingenuity, the Mars helicopter was flying in the air on April 26.
Recommended Videos Truth be told, the communications outage wasn’t unexpected. It happened because a hill stood between the helicopter’s landing location and Perseverance, NASA’s Mars rover that arrived on the red planet with Ingenuity in February 2021. JPL said that mission controllers were able to get back in touch with Ingenuity on June 28 when Perseverance reached the top of the hill, bringing the 4-pound, 19-inch-tall helicopter back into view. With contact restored, JPL was able to download the data from its 52nd flight on April 26.
“The portion of Jezero Crater the rover and helicopter are currently exploring has a lot of rugged terrain, which makes communications dropouts more likely,” JPL’s Josh Anderson, the Ingenuity team lead, said in an article on JPL’s website. “The team’s goal is to keep Ingenuity ahead of Perseverance, which occasionally involves temporarily pushing beyond communication limits. We’re excited to be back in communications range with Ingenuity and receive confirmation of Flight 52.
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