Several days after losing communications with NASA, the Ingenuity space helicopter has reestablished its connections to the home planet and is now responsive to the agency's commands. The next step for NASA is to investigate what caused the massive communications loss between the Mars helicopter and the ground team, especially with the complex network to relay information to it.
NASA Ingenuity Mars Helicopter Reestablishes Communication
PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory shared on X that it recently reestablished communications with the Ingenuity space helicopter, after a few days of losing its connections with it. JPL said that through the Perseverance rover, it was able to relocate and connect with the Ingenuity helicopter, using its long-duration listening sessions for a signal.
This took place after Flight 72, and the last time they were able to communicate with ingenuity was back on January 18.
Now Investigating Comms Issue on Mars Relay Network
The team said that it is now "reviewing the new data" that would help them understand what happened, and the unexpected "comms dropout during Flight 72."
According to Digital Trends, Ingenuity faces a complex communication structure to send and receive messages from where it is to the home planet, and vice versa. First off, its size affects connections with the home planet, as a large antenna is needed for direct contact.
This is why it is required to connect to the Perseverance rover for its communications needs, Percy is also too small to directly communicate with the Earth team, so it sends signals to the Mars Relay Network orbiting the Red Planet that includes the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), Mars Atmospheric and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN), Mars Odyssey, and the ESA's Mars Express and Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO).
After this, the Deep Space Network picks up on this to send over to the Earth. There is a 20-minute communication delay from the Earth to Ingenuity, and it is kept away from Perseverance to avoid collisions, alongside terrains that obstruct connections.
NASA's Ingenuity and Perseverance on Mars
The NASA Perseverance mission is already seeing a significant milestone in its stay on the planet and last December, it celebrated its 1,000th day on Mars, with almost three Earth years of operations already. With this, Percy, the renowned rover, unveiled the ancient history of the famed Marian Lake, also known as the Ancient River Delta, found within the Jezero Crater.
Apart from the many missions that both spacecraft have, there are many things to account for during their stay on Mars, particularly as challenges and drastic conditions are present on the planet. Last November, the duo of Ingenuity and Percy had to hold off further missions to prepare for the solar conjunction, and this is where the Sun, the Earth, and Mars form a line that disrupts radio signals that carry out commands.
Still, Ingenuity is also seeing the communications challenge in the Mars Relay Network, as it is more likely to lose it because of its form factor, with the team now looking into what happened and how to resolve this in the future.
