A smart helicopter broke new (aerial?) ground in April 2019, When it reported data from its first flight — the first powered-controlled flight on another planet— to NASA scientists on Earth.
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But now, Ingenuity seems uninterested in reaching out to its engineering team; Recently, the Mars Helicopter communicated with NASA scientists sporadically and unexpectedly.
Orienting the rover around the Martian Earth makes it difficult for the intelligence team to disrupt communications — and more importantly, within range but safely away from the real star of the Mars 2020 program, the Perseverance rover.
a step Status update By Travis Brown, Ingenuity Chief Engineer The communications problems began in earnest after the 49th Ingenuity flight on April 2, 2023, which set helicopter altitude and airspeed records.
After downloading its 49th flight data, the intelligence team fails to correlate the instructions for the aircraft’s next flight.
The communication problems of intelligence go way back, Brown writes. After the orbiter’s 40th flight in January 2023, Intelligence began grappling with “fall outages” — when the helicopter slips into low-power mode, which will keep the rover alive through the harsh Martian winter nights. Last year, there was a low energy level due to the cold weather NASA engineers had similar concerns about the helicopter’s survival.
It became difficult to predict when intelligence would emerge from these outages, which made it difficult for the team to coordinate helicopter flights. All the while, the Perseverance rover continues its journey along the western edge of Jezero Crater, scanning the dry river delta for areas of geological and astronomical interest.
On Sol 755, the team lost contact with the helicopter again, and there was radio silence for the following week (duration of 1 day, or 1 sol, about 24 hours 39 minutes 35 seconds on Mars). The group began to consider that intelligence might be dead. “In the more than 700 sols that a helicopter has been operated on Mars, we’ve never before experienced a complete radio blackout,” Brown said. Blog. But on Sol 761 and 762, individual radio beeps confirmed that the brave space helicopter remained stationary.
Between perseverance and ingenuity, the team determined that a Martian ridge blocked communications from the helicopter. Because of intelligence He’s been changed from a flying tech show on other worlds to an explorer for perseveranceThe helicopter is tasked with surveying the Jezero Delta, and usually stays ahead of the rover’s expected path.
That flight was a shave close for the 50th Helicopter Squadron. When Perseverance came within 262 feet (80 m) of the helicopter, they were able to attach flight instructions to the rover.
Brown noted that the cat-and-mouse game may continue as the helicopter’s solar panels get dusty and creativity may struggle to get power. We hope that the team will not encounter such a structure The interior lander has completed its mission at the end of last year.
Also: NASA needs a second babysitter for its ambitious Mars model return
