Ingenuity helicopter briefly goes silent on Mars; NASA scientists brace for Martian winter

The Ingenuity helicopter, which made it to Mars with NASA's Perseverance rover in February 2021, become the first object to undergo a powered flight on a different planet. Meant to perform just five test flights in a month, the helicopter has now covered nearly seven kilometres across 28 flights and has lasted for over a year. So far, Ingenuity has acted as a guide for Perseverance, as it scouts the Martian landscape before the rover sets off for inspection. 

However, a recent incident left NASA scientists in shock. In a recent update, the mission team informed that the helicopter missed a planned communications session with the rover for the first time ever. Notably, scientists on Earth receive the data after it transmits it to the rover, which then relays it to our planet. The agency revealed that the communications blackout occurred on May 3 which was the 427th Martian day of the Perseverance rover’s mission. Fortunately, the scientists confirmed that Ingenuity has re-established contact with the rover. 

Cause of the communication blackout

The main cause of the blackout, according to the mission team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) was the dust accumulation on the solar panels of the helicopter. It is not the first time when the Martian dust has played the villain. In the past, it has caused the demise of the Opportunity rover in 2018 and recently caused a major power shortage for the InSight lander by covering up its solar panels; which forced NASA to put it in 'safe mode'. 

"The communications dropout on May 3... was a result of the solar-powered helicopter entering a low-power state, potentially due to the seasonal increase in the amount of dust in the Martian atmosphere and lower temperatures as winter approaches", the mission team wrote in an update. The automated helicopter is equipped with six lithium-ion batteries which draw power generated through the solar panels.

NASA said that when the blackout occurred, the helicopter’s field-programmable gate array (FPGA), which manages its operational state and onboard heater, was powered down. Ingenuity Team Lead Teddy Tzanetos said that the scientists are aware of the challenges the Martian winter will bring. "Our top priority is to maintain communications with Ingenuity in the next few sols, but even then, we know that there will be significant challenges ahead", he said in an update.