ANTARIKSA — NASA’s Ingenuity Mars helicopter suddenly couldn’t communicate. Ingenuity mission controllers lost contact with the 1.8 kilogram helicopter on Thursday, January 18 2024 or Friday Indonesian time.
The first helicopter on another planet fell silent towards the end of its 72nd flight on Mars. “Ingenuity data sent to the (robot) Perseverance rover (which acts as a link between the helicopter and Earth) during the flight shows it successfully climbed to the maximum specified altitude of 12 meters,” NASA officials wrote in an update on Friday, January 19, 2024.
During the descent from its flight, communications between the helicopter and Perseverance stopped early before landing. “The Ingenuity team is analyzing available data and considering next steps to re-establish communications with the helicopter.”
Ingenuity and Perseverance landed together in February 2021 at the bottom of Mars’ 45-kilometer-wide Jezero Crater. The crater housed a large lake and river delta billions of years ago.
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The Perseverance robot is hunting for evidence of past Martian life and collecting samples for future return to Earth. Currently, Ingenuity is serving as a scout for Perseverance which is the size of a car.
Initially, the main task was a technology demonstration campaign on five original flights in the spring of 2021. The main mission was already considered successful, that Mars was friendly to airplanes.
Ingenuity’s current situation means Perseverance must return the favor to its companion. “Perseverance is not currently visible to Ingenuity, but the team could consider driving closer for visual inspection,” wrote NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which is managing the robot’s second mission, on Friday.
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Ingenuity has flown for more than 128 minutes and covered a total distance of 17.7 kilometers during 72 Mars flights. Under the current circumstances, it is still unclear whether this number will continue to increase. Source: Space.com
2024-01-20 15:07:00
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