WASHINGTON: NASA has re-established contact with the Mars Ingenuity helicopter which had misplaced contact with the Perseverance rover.
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) mentioned in a publish on X that the workforce is reviewing the brand new knowledge to raised perceive the sudden communication dropout throughout Flight 72.
“Excellent news immediately: We have reestablished contact with the Mars helicopter after instructing @NASAPersevere to carry out long-duration listening periods for Ingenuity’s sign,” NASA mentioned.
Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk replied: “Nice”.
Ingenuity landed on the Crimson Planet in February 2021 hooked up to the stomach of NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover and it additionally marked the two-year anniversary of its first flight, which passed off on April 19, 2021.
Initially tasked with solely 5 take a look at flights to show its “pioneering” expertise, Ingenuity helicopter exceeded all expectations.
On January 18, Ingenuity executed its 72nd flight on the Crimson Planet.
The flight was designed as a fast pop-up vertical flight to take a look at the helicopter’s methods, following an unplanned early touchdown throughout its earlier flight, NASA mentioned.
The six-wheeled Perseverance rover is looking for indicators of historic microbial life on the Crimson Planet.
Ingenuity has stayed aloft for greater than 128 minutes and coated a complete of 17.7 km throughout its 72 Mars flights, in keeping with the mission’s flight log.
