NASA back in touch with the Mars Ingenuity helicopter

Washington, Jan 22 (IANS) NASA has re-established contact with the Mars Ingenuity helicopter which had lost contact with the Perseverance rover.

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) said in a post on X that the team is reviewing the new data to better understand the unexpected communication dropout during Flight 72.

“Good news today: We’ve reestablished contact with the Mars helicopter after instructing @NASAPersevere to perform long-duration listening sessions for Ingenuity’s signal,” NASA said.

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk replied: “Great”.

Ingenuity landed on the Red Planet in February 2021 attached to the belly of NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover and it also marked the two-year anniversary of its first flight, which took place on April 19, 2021.

Originally tasked with only five test flights to prove its “pioneering” technology, Ingenuity helicopter exceeded all expectations.

On January 18, Ingenuity executed its 72nd flight at the Red Planet.

The flight was designed as a quick pop-up vertical flight to check out the helicopter’s systems, following an unplanned early landing during its previous flight, NASA said.

The six-wheeled Perseverance rover is searching for signs of ancient microbial life on the Red Planet.

Ingenuity has stayed aloft for more than 128 minutes and covered a total of 17.7 km during its 72 Mars flights, according to the mission’s flight log.