NASA Loses Communication with Mars Helicopter Ingenuity

NASA's Ingenuity Mars helicopter has unexpectedly fallen silent.

Contact with the 4-pound (1.8 kilograms) chopper was lost on Thursday (Jan. 18) towards the conclusion of its 72nd flight on Mars.

In an update provided on Friday (Jan. 19), NASA officials revealed, "Data Ingenuity sent to the Perseverance rover (which acts as a relay between the helicopter and Earth) during the flight indicates it successfully climbed to its assigned maximum altitude of 40 feet (12 meters)." However, they noted that during its planned descent, communication between the helicopter and the rover ceased prematurely, before reaching the surface. The Ingenuity team is currently scrutinizing available data and contemplating the next steps to restore communication with the helicopter.

Ingenuity and Perseverance landed together in February 2021 within the expansive Jezero Crater, which once housed a significant lake and river delta billions of years ago.

While Perseverance is on a mission to search for signs of past life on Mars and collect samples for future return to Earth, Ingenuity has been serving as a scout for the car-sized rover. The extended mission for Ingenuity was granted by NASA after the small helicopter successfully completed its initial five-flight technology-demonstrating campaign in the spring of 2021.

Now, as Ingenuity faces communication challenges, there's a suggestion that Perseverance might play a role in helping its robotic companion.

"Perseverance is currently out of line-of-sight with Ingenuity, but the team could consider driving closer for a visual inspection," stated NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, which manages both missions, on Friday.

Ingenuity has accumulated an impressive record, staying airborne for more than 128 minutes and covering a total distance of 11 miles (17.7 kilometers) during its 72 flights on Mars, as documented in the mission's flight log.

The future trajectory of these numbers remains uncertain as we await updates on whether Ingenuity's handlers can reestablish communication with this groundbreaking chopper, marking the first-ever exploration of the skies of a world beyond Earth.

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