NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter has made contact after more than 60 days of silence. The helicopter’s last flight occurred on April 26, covering a distance of 363 meters in just 139 seconds. Ingenuity’s purpose is to scout potential obstacles and items of interest ahead of the Perseverance Rover. However, during Flight 52, Ingenuity landed in an area where it lost line of sight with the rover. Perseverance was finally able to establish contact with Ingenuity on June 28 after cresting a hill.
Despite the limited data NASA has shared, the assessment of Ingenuity’s status suggests that everything is in good working order for the helicopter. This period of silence is separate from a previous incident after Flight 49 when the rotorcraft lost communication for over six days due to a rocky outcrop interfering with communication signals. Ingenuity even entered a “night-time survival mode” during this time, causing unease among the NASA team.
After coming back online, Ingenuity successfully completed three more flights before going silent again following Flight 52. NASA has developed a tentative flight plan for a 53rd journey, aiming to visit an interim airfield to the west and then proceed to a new base of operations near a rocky outcrop that interests the Perseverance team.
In the search for innovative solutions to explore the thin atmosphere of Mars, Japanese researchers have developed a robot modeled after a hummingbird. Unlike typical bird flight patterns, hummingbirds beat their wings both forward and backward. In a recent study by Japanese university scientists published in Nature, they tested a robot that emulated the flight pattern of a hummingbird at a simulated altitude of 9,000 meters. The researchers believe that this flapping robot could potentially enable aerial exploration on Mars, assisting both rovers and human exploration.
For now, Ingenuity remains the ruler of the Martian skies. NASA’s initial mission for the helicopter consisted of only five flights due to uncertainty surrounding the ability of rotorcraft to fly in the Red Planet’s thin atmosphere. However, Ingenuity has surpassed expectations, and its successful operations continue to provide valuable insights for future Mars missions.