The 52nd flight of NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter is now listed as a success in the official mission log. The flight took place on April 26, but mission controllers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California lost contact with the helicopter as it descended toward the surface for landing.
The Ingenuity team expected a communication outage because there was a hill between the helicopter landing site and the Perseverance rover position, blocking communication between them. The rover acts as a radio relay between the helicopter and mission controllers at JPL. In anticipation of this loss of communication, the Ingenuity team has already developed plans to re-contact when the rover returns to range. Contact was restored on 28 June when Perseverance ascended the hill and was able to see Ingenuity again.
The objective of Flight 52, a 1,191-foot (363-meter) and 139-second flight, was to reposition the helicopter and take images of the Martian surface for the rover’s science team.
“The part of Jezero Crater that the rover and helicopter are currently exploring has very rugged terrain, which increases the likelihood of communication breakdowns,” said JPL’s Josh Anderson, Ingenuity team leader. “The team’s goal is to keep Ingenuity ahead of Perseverance, which sometimes means temporarily overcoming communication limits. We are pleased to be back in communication range with Ingenuity and have received confirmation of Flight 52.”
NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter is seen in shadow in an image captured by its navigation camera during the rotorcraft’s 52nd flight on April 26.
Sixty-three days is a long time to wait for flight results, but incoming data suggests that all is well with the first plane on another world. If the rest of Ingenuity’s health checks are equally rosy, the helicopter can fly again within the next few weeks.
Flight 53’s destination is a makeshift airfield to the west, from where the team plans to make another flight west to a new base of operations near the rocky outcrop that the Perseverance team is interested in.
More about Ingenuity
The Ingenuity Mars Helicopter was built by JPL, which also manages the project for NASA headquarters. It is supported by NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. NASA Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley and NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia provided significant flight performance analysis and technical assistance during Ingenuity’s development.
AeroVironment Inc., Qualcomm and SolAero also provided design assistance and major vehicle components. Lockheed Space designed and manufactured the Mars Helicopter Delivery System.
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