In April 2019, the Ingenuity chopper broke new ground when it informed NASA scientists on Earth about its first flight—the first powered, controlled flight on another planet.
However, as of late, the Mars helicopter has only occasionally and erratically communicated with NASA scientists, it appears that Ingenuity has no interest in doing so.
Ingenuity’s Challenges and Milestones in Martian Flight
It is challenging for the Ingenuity crew to maneuver the vehicle about the Martian landscape—and crucially, both within range and securely away from the Perseverance rover, the real star of the Mars 2020 program—due to the communication breakdown.
The communication issues began in earnest after Ingenuity’s 49th flight on April 2, 2023, which broke records for the rotorcraft’s height and airspeed, according to a status update issued by Travis Brown, the craft’s chief engineer.
The Ingenuity crew failed to uplink orders for the rotocraft’s next flight after data from its 49th trip was downlinked.
The mission extension is being driven primarily by two factors. The first is that Ingenuity has proven that a helicopter can fly in the Martian atmosphere and function autonomously by completing all of the technical objectives assigned to it.
This has allowed Ingenuity to acquire a substantial amount of data that will be used to help develop future planetary exploration UAVs.
However, that wouldn’t have been sufficient to support the mission extension on its own.
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NASA Overlapping Mission With Amazing Development
Ingenuity was always an add-on, intended to use as little resources as possible from Perseverance’s primary purpose, which is to collect samples in the hunt for prehistoric life on Mars.
The rover was supposed to stay close to Ingenuity for 30 sols to support flight operations before moving on to the more intriguing regions of Jezero crater to investigate and collect samples.
This offers the chance for the rover to remain put for the time being, conduct some scientific research, and yet assist Ingenuity’s current extended mission.
This is an amazing development, and we’re eager to see the data and pictures that the missions of Ingenuity and Perseverance, which are now overlapping, produce.
Take a look at our in-depth articles on the rover itself and its partner helicopter to find out more about these incredible spacecraft.
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