NASA has lost contact with its helicopter on Mars

The helicopter, which resembles a large drone, became in 2021 the first motor vehicle to fly on another planet. He had arrived on Mars with the Perseverance rover, which acts as a relay to transmit data between the helicopter and Earth.

Ingenuity reached an altitude of 40 feet during its flight Thursday, NASA said in a message released Friday evening.

But “during descent, communications between the helicopter and rover stopped before landing,” NASA wrote.

The teams responsible for the helicopter “are analyzing available data and considering next steps to re-establish communication with the helicopter,” the US space agency added.

The flight had been planned to “check the helicopter’s systems, after landing earlier than expected on the previous flight,” he said.

Closing for visual inspection.

NASA had temporarily lost contact with the helicopter before, most notably for an extended period of about two months last year, but this outage was planned at the time.

Ingenuity, which weighs just 1.8kg, was initially supposed to take off just five times, but the mission exceeded all expectations.

In total the helicopter traveled approximately 17 kilometers and flew up to an altitude of 24 metres.

Its longevity is remarkable, especially knowing that it must survive the freezing Martian nights, heating itself thanks to solar panels that charge the batteries during the day.

It thus became the traveling companion of the Perseverance rover, whose mission is to search for traces of ancient life on Mars.

2024-01-20 16:42:00
#NASA #lost #contact #helicopter #Mars