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| NASA's Ingenuity helicopter lands on the surface of Mars on May 7, 2021. (File photo, Source: AFP) |
Ingenuity made its 52nd flight on Mars on April 26. However, experts at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California (USA) lost contact with Ingenuity when the helicopter landed on the surface of the Red Planet.
In fact, the loss of connection between the Ingenuity helicopter and the Perseverance rover was expected by the mission team because there was a rock field between the landing site of Ingenuity and the location of Perseverance, thereby "disconnecting" the connection between the two devices.
The Perseverance rover acts as a communications hub between Ingenuity and the helicopter team at JPL.
According to NASA, communication between the Ingenuity helicopter and the Perseverance rover was re-established on June 28 as Perseverance moved above the reef and got closer to Ingenuity. Ingenuity will undergo a “health check” and could fly again in the next few weeks if conditions are favorable.
The Ingenuity helicopter is 50cm tall and weighs 1.8kg, and was launched to Mars on February 18, 2021 with the Perseverance rover.
Not only to test the feasibility of helicopters on Mars, Ingenuity is also equipped with cameras to detect areas that Perseverance can survey, as well as support finding the most efficient and safest route for the probe to move in its mission to search for evidence of life on the Red Planet.
According to NASA, the Ingenuity helicopter is designed to fly for up to 90 seconds, covering a distance of nearly 300 meters at a time, and about 3 - 4.5 meters above the ground. Deploying Ingenuity on Mars is considered a technology demonstration to test powered flight for the first time on another planet.
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