Astronomy

71 successful flights on a different planet is a very impressive achievement non the less

So basically 72 flights into it’s 5 flight mission it went to far over the horizon and lost line of sight. So they have to drive over to it to re-establish communication.

1. They’ve done good already, they don’t need to go this hard.
2. They went so hard they went over the horizon and lost coms.
3. Because it’s autonomous it’s likely still operational, they just have to get close to it.

This is the best summary I could come up with:

"Data Ingenuity sent to the Perseverance rover (which acts as a relay between the helicopter and Earth) during the flight indicates it successfully climbed to its assigned maximum altitude of 40 feet (12 meters)," NASA officials wrote in an update on Friday (Jan. 19).

Ingenuity and Perseverance landed together in February 2021 on the floor of the 28-mile-wide (45 kilometers) Jezero Crater, which harbored a big lake and a river delta billions of years ago.

Perseverance is hunting for evidence of past Mars life and collecting samples for future return to Earth.

Ingenuity is serving as a scout for the car-sized rover, on an extended mission that NASA granted after the little chopper aced its original five-flight technology-demonstrating campaign in the spring of 2021.

"Perseverance is currently out of line-of-sight with Ingenuity, but the team could consider driving closer for a visual inspection," NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, which manages both robots' missions, said via X on Friday.

We'll have to wait and see if Ingenuity's handlers can get back in touch with the pioneering chopper, the first vehicle ever to explore the skies of a world beyond Earth.

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:(