The Ingenuity Mars helicopter first launched in July 2020.
NASA/JPL-Caltech
NASA lost contact with Ingenuity on April 26 and did not hear from the helicopter for 63 days.
The helicopter had landed out of range from the Perseverance rover, which allows it to talk to Earth.
NASA now says the helicopter’s 52nd flight was a success after it finally made contact.
After a nail-biting 63 days of silence, the Ingenuity Mars helicopter — the first-ever machine capable of powered and controlled flight on another planet — has finally made contact with mission control, NASA reports.
The signal means Ingenuity’s 52nd flight on the red planet was a success.
Ingenuity first launched alongside the Perseverance Mars rover in July 2020. The duo landed on the red planet on Feb. 18, 2021 for the first time. The two are still bonded on the planet, with Ingenuity relying on the Perseverance rover for operations and allowing it to communicate with Earth.
Ingenuity’s most recent flight — just over two minutes long — was designed to reposition the helicopter so it could take new images of Mars’ surface for researchers. NASA said Ingenuity’s signal cut out on April 26 thanks to a hill that separated the helicopter from the Perseverance rover. On June 28, the rover finally made it over the hill, giving the helicopter the signal it needed to contact NASA mission control.
Experts at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, predicted the hill would cause an interruption. This is not Ingenuity’s first run-in with communication issues.
Back in April, mission control unexpectedly lost touch with Ingenuity for six days, unable to find any signs of activity. It was the team’s first time experiencing a total communication blackout with the helicopter, prompting unease before its return, space.com reported. But the next day, the helicopter successfully completed its 50th flight on the red planet.