For more than a year, since his arrival on Mars, the Ingenuity helicopter he managed to win everyone’s admiration, even partially overshadows the role of Perseverance, which is actually the main character of this mission on the red planet. Recall that the first anniversary of the probe’s arrival on Mars was celebrated in February, and that since then, despite the occasional shock in general, the team of both devices has been a great joy to researchers and engineers.

The case of Ingenuity is paradigmatic and it isThe original plans were to keep it running for about thirty soles (thirty Martian days, a little longer than the earthly). After this deadline, however, his managers confirmed that it could still be used, to the point that he even saw his functions expand and become an explorer who would be responsible for checking the safety of the itineraries that Perseverance would later travel to.

Since then, and a few weeks ago, Ingenuity has not only remained in the service, but has even been able to improve its records, helped by the change of seasons on Mars. However, the arrival of winter is not good news for the helicopterwhich is facing greater problems with recharging the batteries, is responsible not only for the operation of its flight and communication systems with Perseverance, but also for the systems responsible for protecting the helicopter from the cold it intends to deal with.

So how can we read at Gizmodo, concerns have already reached the control of the missionand the point is that communication between Ingenuity and Perseverance has changed, and at this point the helicopter could go into safe mode, reduce power consumption to a minimum, and make some configuration adjustments that are also more efficient. but allow the helicopter to protect itself from the cold. In principle, the data of the new setting would be transferred, but the lack of communication worries the engineers.

So now youThe key is that Ingenuity can recharge its batteries, at least enough to protect itself from the cold. Ideally, it would also be possible to restore the normal rhythm of communication between the two devices, but the greater the presence of dust in the air and the greater need for energy to protect against the cold, it is possible that “radio silence” may exceed what would be recommended.