This image shows a demonstration of NASA’s Perseverance rover landing safely on Mars. (Photo courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech)
LOS ANGELES, June 30 (Xinhua) — NASA announced Friday that NASA’s “Ingenuity” helicopter on Mars has regained contact with the Mars rover “Perseverance” after two months of radio silence.
The Ingenuity helicopter made its 52nd flight to Mars on April 26, but mission controllers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California lost contact with the helicopter as it was descending to the surface for landing.
The Ingenuity team expected a communications outage due to the presence of a hill standing between the helicopter landing site and the Perseverance rover site, which impedes communication between the two.
The probe acts as a radio relay unit between the helicopter and JPL’s mission controllers.
Contact was restored on June 28 when Perseverance reached the hill and was able to see Ingenuity again, according to NASA.
NASA said that if the rest of Ingenuity’s health checks are optimistic, the helicopter may fly again within the next two weeks.
Ingenuity arrived at Jezero crater on Mars on February 18, 2021, and is attached to the belly of Perseverance. This helicopter is a technological experimental unit to experience the first flight of a motorized vehicle on another planet.■
