NASA sent a small helicopter to Mars: Ingenuity. It is the companion of the Perseverance rover and its construction and operation was very experimental, not to say that there was “little faith” in it. The goal was for it to make three flights: it has been more than 40. It has even been a survivor of the harsh winter of Mars.
But all these achievements have not been free of “accidents.” On flights 46 and 47 Ingenuity went to a dangerous region called Tenby, which is classified as a “scientifically important” area. The images captured “were unfortunately of little practical value”, but on Flight 48 things changed and Ingenuity flew over other areas called Castell Henllys and Foel Drygarn, where it obtained images of great value.
However, after that success, NASA engineers made a new flight, on 49, after a couple of failed attempts, so that Ingenuity could get closer to the southern wall of the Belva crater: in that place the little friend stopped responding. .
For six Martian days (24 hours, 39 minutes, and 35.244 seconds) Ingenuity gave no signal. They had already experienced problems to “wake up” Ingenuity before. The Rover also had problems. Almost a week later an ACK (radio received signal confirmation) was received.
What was the problem?
They were two. The first, that the topology between the rover and the helicopter made it difficult for the radio signals used between these vehicles to be transmitted.
The second, that Ingenuity’s HBS antenna is located in its lower right part, something that can make communications difficult in complex conditions. The little one will have a complex scenario in the coming days.
Since NASA explained that although Martian summer is now here, Ingenuity’s solar panels have a lot of dust and that will cause the helicopter to go into energy saving mode often. “This means that, much to the chagrin of your team, we’re not done playing hide-and-seek with the little helicopter yet,” they concluded.