Blackout on Mars! The NASA helicopter is absolutely silent

In exploration of Mars since February 2021, when it landed inside the Perseverance rover, the Ingenuity helicopter recently gave a big scare to the science team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), in charge of the mission.

According to Travis Brown, chief engineer of JPL’s Robotic Mobility Group, they lost all contact with the equipment for six days, when the expedition was between 755th and 761st suns (as the Martian day is called, which has a duration of approximately 24 hours and 40 minutes on Earth).

It was just over two weeks ago, as reported by the scientist on the mission blog on Friday (26).

Around the same time last year, almost the same thing happened. However, on that occasion, the time frame was shorter and the problem was much simpler: just a power outage caused by a dust storm hitting the solar panel.

According to Brown, even under the worst communication conditions, mission controllers on the ground always received some activity, however minimal.

This is what the team was most concerned about, as Ingenuity remained completely silent this time around. “In more than 700 sols of helicopter operations on Mars, we have never had a total radio blackout,” the engineer revealed.

In the report, Brown explains that the blackout was caused by a number of factors. “First, the topology between Perseverance and Ingenuity was very challenging for helicopter radio.”

According to him, there was a ridge of moderate height separating the drone from the rover’s operating area. “The impact of this summit would only decrease as the rover gets closer to the helicopter,” he added.

Additionally, the Perseverance antenna that receives signals from Ingenuity is located on the right side of the rover. Due to the positions they were both in, the connection between them was partially blocked.

While that is now resolved, the team knows these communication outages will become more frequent, with dust accumulating on the helicopter’s panels capturing solar energy.

“Despite the imminent return of summer to Mars, it appears that the dust covering the solar array will cause Ingenuity to remain in this energy transition for some time,” Brown said. “That means the playful little chopper’s high-stakes hide-and-seek isn’t over yet.”

The post Blackout on Mars! NASA Helicopter Stays in Absolute Silence first appeared on Olhar Digital.

Source: Olhar Digital