NASA has reconnected with the Martian Ingenuity helicopter, after more than two months of radio silence, the US Aeronautics and Space Administration said Friday. The small rotorcraft, which began a journey to the Red Planet with the "Perseverance" probe in early 2021, has withstood much longer than its initial scheduled mission of 30 days to prove the feasibility of its technology in 5 test flights.
Since then, the helicopter has been used dozens of times, serving as an atmospheric scout to help a mobile robot search for signs of ancient microbial life billions of years ago, when Mars was wetter and warmer than it is today.
Ingenuity's 52nd flight launched on April 26, but mission controllers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California lost contact with it as it descended to the surface after its two-minute flight at an altitude of 363 meters. The loss of communication was expected due to the presence of a hill between the "Ingenuity" helicopter and the "Perseverance" mobile robot, which acts as a link between the drone and the ground.
However, Joshua Anderson, head of the team responsible for Ingenuity at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, told AFP: "This was the longest period we went without hearing about Ingenuity during the mission." "Ingenuity is designed to be able to act as it should when gaps in communication like this happen, but we naturally feel good when we get back in touch," he added.
The data so far indicates that the rover is in good condition, and if other test results come back positive, Ingenuity will be prepared for its next journey, west toward a rocky outcrop that the Perseverance team is interested in exploring. This is not the first time that "Perseverance" has been exposed to communication problems.
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