REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA – NASA’s Ingenuity Mars helicopter cannot communicate. Ingenuity officials lost contact with the helicopter, which weighs 1.8 kilograms, on Thursday (1/18/2024) near the end of its 72nd flight to the planet Mars.
NASA officials in an update on Friday (1/19/2024) wrote that Ingenuity data sent to the Perseverance rover (which serves as a link between the helicopter and Earth) during the flight showed that it had successfully ascended at the maximum specified altitude, i.e. 12 meters.
They added that during the planned descent, communications between the helicopter and the rover were interrupted early, before landing. “The Ingenuity team is analyzing available data and considering next steps to re-establish communications with the helicopter,” NASA officials wrote, reported Space, Ahad (21/1/2024).
Ingenuity and perseverance landed together in February 2021 on the floor of the 45-kilometer-wide Jezero Crater, which billions of years ago was home to a large lake and river delta.
Perseverance searches for evidence of past Martian life and collects samples for future return to Earth. Meanwhile, Ingenuity is serving as a scout for the car-sized rover, in an additional mission assigned by NASA after the small helicopter was successful in its original five-flight technology demonstration campaign in spring 2021.
Maybe it’s time for Perseverance to return the favor and help Ingenuity. “Perseverance is currently invisible to Ingenuity, but the team may consider moving closer for a visual inspection,” said NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, which is managing the robot’s second mission, via Friday (1/19/2024).
According to mission flight logs, Ingenuity flew for more than 128 minutes and covered a total distance of 17.7 kilometers during 72 flights to Mars. It is currently unclear whether this number will continue to increase. We’ll have to wait and see if Ingenuity officials can get back in touch with the pioneering helicopter, the first vehicle capable of exploring the skies of a world beyond Earth.
2024-01-21 07:37:56
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