NASA looks into unusual Mars helicopter communications hiccup during flight – CNET [CNET]

This story is part of Welcome to Mars, our series exploring the red planet.

It seems NASA’s plucky Ingenuity helicopter successfully completed its 17th Mars flight on Sunday, but something unusual happened near the end of the journey. The Perseverance rover and the rotorcraft normally stay in touch during flight, but as Ingenuity descended, it lost its radio communications link with its wheeled companion. 

That might sound pretty worrisome, but initial indications suggest the helicopter is just fine. “Approximately 15 minutes later, Perseverance received several packets of additional Ingenuity telemetry indicating that the flight electronics and battery were healthy,” Ingenuity team lead Teddy Tzanetos wrote in a status update on Tuesday.

The Ingenuity team is looking into the communications issue, and said it’s likely “due to a challenging radio configuration between Perseverance and Ingenuity during landing.” A combination of factors might have contributed to the problem, including the rover’s orientation in relation to Ingenuity and a hill that may have disrupted the radio signal at the end of the flight.

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