The final time NASA had contact with Ingenuity, the Mars helicopter was flying within the air on April 26.
Ten weeks on, the Mars workforce on the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California have introduced that it’s restored contact with the plane, and every little thing seems to be so as.
Truth be informed, the communications outage wasn’t sudden. It occurred as a result of a hill stood between the helicopter’s touchdown location and Perseverance, NASA’s Mars rover that arrived on the purple planet with Ingenuity in February 2021.
The hill blocked the communication hyperlink between the 2 autos, and since the rover acts as a radio relay between the helicopter and mission controllers at JPL, contact between Ingenuity and Earth was briefly misplaced.
JPL stated that mission controllers had been capable of get again in contact with Ingenuity on June 28 when Perseverance reached the highest of the hill, bringing the 4-pound, 19-inch-tall helicopter again into view. With contact restored, JPL was capable of obtain the information from its 52nd flight on April 26.
To its reduction, the workforce was capable of affirm that the helicopter carried out a profitable touchdown on the finish of a 139-second flight that lined a distance of 1,191-foot (363-meters).
“The portion of Jezero Crater the rover and helicopter are at present exploring has a number of rugged terrain, which makes communications dropouts extra seemingly,” JPL’s Josh Anderson, the Ingenuity workforce lead, stated in an article on JPL’s web site. “The workforce’s objective is to maintain Ingenuity forward of Perseverance, which often includes briefly pushing past communication limits. We’re excited to be again in communications vary with Ingenuity and obtain affirmation of Flight 52.”
JPL stated if Ingenuity passes checks to verify that it suffered no ailing results from its current interval of isolation, then it’ll ship the helicopter skyward on its 53rd flight within the subsequent few weeks.
Ingenuity has carried out far past expectations since reaching Mars in 2021. After turning into the primary plane to carry out powered, managed flight on one other planet, the helicopter has gone on to fly more and more advanced flights, and has even assisted the Perseverance workforce by capturing aerial imagery that’s used to plan protected and environment friendly routes for the ground-based rover.
With the flight know-how nicely and really confirmed, NASA is anticipated to construct extra superior Ingenuity-like plane for future missions to Mars and different celestial our bodies.
Editors’ Recommendations
