After 63 days of silence, Mars helicopter phones home

Multimedia

3-07-2023, 20:30

INA - SOURCES

NASAs Ingenuity Mars Helicopter has phoned home, more than 60 days after last establishing contact.

Ingenuity's last flight was on April 26, when the rotorcraft took to Martian skies for 139 seconds and hopped 363 meters.

The copter's role is to fly ahead of the Perseverance Rover and scout any potential obstacles or items of interest. On Flight 52, that meant the flying machine landed over a hill, in a location from which it did not enjoy line of sight to the rover.

Perseverance has since caught up, crested the hill, and on June 28 was able to see Ingenuity and re-establish contact.

NASAs assessment of the copter's status – based on the little data it has shared – "indicates all is well with the first aircraft on another world."

This period of silence for Ingenuity is unrelated to the scarier incident after flight 49, when the rotorcraft was out of touch for over six days. On that occasion, a rocky outcrop was an expected source of comms complications, but Ingenuity was also "drifting in and out of night-time survival mode" and the lack of even an "ack" for several days was rated a source of "unease."