NASA's Mars Helicopter Just Won't Quit, Resuming Flights After an Untimely Landing
NASA reestablished communication with Ingenuity
following 63 days of silence. Ingenuity was supposed to fly for 136 seconds, reaching an altitude of 16 feet above Mars’ surface before descending vertically to 8 feet to snap images of a rocky outcrop and collectstraight up to 33 feet , allowing its software to identify areas that are not suitable for landing, before touching down on the surface of Mars.
Unfortunately, the helicopter’s 53rd flight did not go according to plan. Instead, Ingenuity flew for a total of 74 seconds before a flight contingency program called “was triggered, causing the helicopter to automatically land. The program was “designed to put the helicopter on the surface as soon as possible if any one of a few dozen off-nominal scenarios was encountered,” Teddy Tzanetos, team lead emeritus for Ingenuity, said in a statement.
The success of its subsequent flight, however, gives the team confidence that the issue can be resolved by updating the flight software to help mitigate the impact of dropped images. Ingenuity also snapped a photo of its rover companion during its latest flight.The Perseverance rover can be seen at the very top of this image taken by the Ingenuity helicopter during its 54th flight.
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