Rover perseverance was the last model sent NASA until Marsbut along with the car, the agency also sent an autonomous helicopter ingenuity. Originally conceived as a test, the aircraft has exceeded the expectations of scientists and plays a key role in the exploration of the planet. But on May 3, she lost contact with the rover, causing the agency to create special operation to “find” the car.

According to the space agency, a helicopter recently problems of dust accumulation on solar panels, causing loading problems. This caused the aircraft to run out of battery and in such cases it goes into “safe mode” where the electronics are turned off to protect it from nights on the red planet that can reach -73 degrees Celsius. . . .

Among the disconnected parts are the device’s internal clock, which eventually caused a communication problem between ingenuity This perseverance. To solve this problem and save the helicopter, the team NASA I decided stop all rover activity for a dayso that he pays attention and can hear the call of the aircraft.

Credits: NASA Disclosure

The space agency claims that this plan worked and that they managed to establish a stable connection with Ingenuity. The organization’s engineers said that the device is at 41% and that when the battery is fully charged, they will continue flying over the Martian soil.

NASA will abandon the helicopter

As indicated ArsTehnikathe space agency’s original plan was to use the aircraft as an additional technology demonstration with several members of the mission leadership team from perseverance not wanting to risk sending the model to Mars.

OUR ingenuity was going to make only five experimental flights and be abandoned, but it completely exceeded the crew’s expectations. At the moment, the autonomous helicopter has already made more than 27 flights and covered almost 7 kilometers of the planet’s surface.

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Source: NASA, Arstechnika.