Washington: It’s been a long time, never mind: NASA have reestablished contact with the intrepid Simplicity The Mars helicopter after more than two months of radio silence, the space agency said Friday.
mini rotorcraft that stopped the ride red Planet The Perseverance rover, due in early 2021, has gone far beyond its initial 30-day mission to prove the feasibility of its technology in five test flights.
Since then, it has been deployed dozens of times, acting as an aerial scout to aid its wheeled companion in searching for signs of ancient microbial life billions of years ago, when Mars was much cooler than it is today. It was more humid and hot.
Ingenuity’s 52nd flight launched on April 26, but mission controllers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)jpl) California lost contact as it descended to the surface after a two-minute, 1,191-foot (363-meter) jump.
There was a possibility of communication loss, as a hill stood in the middle. Simplicity and PerseveranceWhich acts as a relay between the drone and the earth.
Still, “this is the longest the mission has ever gone without hearing from Ingenuity.” Joshua AndersonIngenuity team lead at JPL, told AFP.
“Ingenuity is designed to take care of itself when there is a communication gap like this, but we were all relieved to finally hear an answer.”
The figures so far show that Haley is in good shape. If further health checks also return normal, Ingenuity will be all set for its next flight, westward toward a rocky area the Perseverance team is interested in exploring.
This isn’t the first time that Ingenuity has experienced a communication outage. Haley was exploring an ancient river delta when it went missing in April for about six days, “a very long time,” said the chief engineer. travis brown Wrote in a blog post.
mini rotorcraft that stopped the ride red Planet The Perseverance rover, due in early 2021, has gone far beyond its initial 30-day mission to prove the feasibility of its technology in five test flights.
Since then, it has been deployed dozens of times, acting as an aerial scout to aid its wheeled companion in searching for signs of ancient microbial life billions of years ago, when Mars was much cooler than it is today. It was more humid and hot.
Ingenuity’s 52nd flight launched on April 26, but mission controllers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)jpl) California lost contact as it descended to the surface after a two-minute, 1,191-foot (363-meter) jump.
There was a possibility of communication loss, as a hill stood in the middle. Simplicity and PerseveranceWhich acts as a relay between the drone and the earth.
Still, “this is the longest the mission has ever gone without hearing from Ingenuity.” Joshua AndersonIngenuity team lead at JPL, told AFP.
“Ingenuity is designed to take care of itself when there is a communication gap like this, but we were all relieved to finally hear an answer.”
The figures so far show that Haley is in good shape. If further health checks also return normal, Ingenuity will be all set for its next flight, westward toward a rocky area the Perseverance team is interested in exploring.
This isn’t the first time that Ingenuity has experienced a communication outage. Haley was exploring an ancient river delta when it went missing in April for about six days, “a very long time,” said the chief engineer. travis brown Wrote in a blog post.