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Scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) established contact with the innovative Mars rover on June 28 after silence from the spinning rover for 63 days since its last flight.
Ingenuity is a small solar-powered helicopter that landed on Mars on February 18, 2021, along with the Perseverance Rover. On April 19 of the same year, it made history by completing the first powered extraterrestrial flight in human history.
Ingenuity Flight 52 occurred on April 26, but NASA mission controllers lost contact with the helicopter as it descended toward the surface for landing, meaning they had no way of confirming the success of the flight.
But this loss of communication was expected because there was a hill between the landing site and the Perseverance rover. The rover serves as an information relay between the helicopter and mission controllers on the ground. Prior to this loss of communications, Ingenuity teams had already made plans to reestablish communication when the rover drives to a location where it is within range of the helicopter, according to NASA.
According to Josh Anderson, Ingenuity Team Leader at JPL, the communications leak is likely now that the rover and helicopter are currently exploring a portion of Jezero Crater with a lot of rough terrain. The team will try to keep Ingenuity ahead of Perseverance, which means that the helicopter will occasionally push the boundaries of connectivity.
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