After 63 days of silence, the Mars Creativity helicopter contacted Earth again. The tiny drone took to the skies above Mars on April 26 for its 52nd flight, but lost contact with mission control units before landing, causing a month-long communications outage.
On June 28, Ingenuity contacted again with no apparent problems with the safety and whereabouts of the first airship on another planet. However, there is still a long way to go for humans here on Earth to confirm that the device has landed safely on the Red Planet.
The flight was intended to change the position of the helicopter and take pictures of the surface of Mars. The mission team expected that there might be a communication outage. That’s because Ingenuity communicates with mission control at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, and relays all messages through the Perseverance rover.
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“The part of Jezero Crater that the rover and helicopter are currently exploring has a lot of rough terrain, which increases the potential for communications disruptions,” Josh Anderson, JPL creative team lead, said in a statement.
