Slash Gear by Rahul Srinivas June 30, 2023
More than two months after losing contact, mission controllers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California have re-established contact with NASA's Ingenuity Mars Helicopter. Sent to Mars as part of the ongoing Mars 2020 Mission, the Ingenuity Helicopter made history in 2021 after performing the first-ever powered flight on another planet.
When NASA lost contact with the rotorcraft on April 26, 2023, it was on its 52nd flight above the Martian surface. The goal of this short, 139-second flight was to change the position of the craft and to take additional images of the Martian surface. The helicopter was to cover a distance of 1191 feet during the process. However, this particular flight also involved Ingenuity flying over a small hill, which eventually became a communication barrier between Ingenuity and the Perseverance rover.
By the end of Flight 51, Ingenuity was on the other side of this hill, essentially blocking all signals from the rotorcraft to the Perseverance rover. With Ingenuity depending on the rover for controls and for relaying information back to Earth, this also meant that the rotorcraft remained uncontactable for over 63 days. Things changed on June 28, 2023, when scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) made Perseverance climb over the hill, after which it came within the range of Ingenuity's antennae.
More:
https://www.slashgear.com/1328349/nasa-mars-ingenuity-helicopter-resumes-contact/
