It was the first time in more than a year that Ingenuity missed a communications check-in when it lost communications with Perseverance. Communications have been re-established for the plucky helicopter. It faces an uphill battle with the encroaching Martian dust.
According to an update shared by NASA, the drop in communications was due to dust in the Martian atmosphere. The amount of dust on Mars is increasing. The solar panels on Ingenuity are less effective due to the dust covering them.
When a dust storm passed over the Jezero crater, the helicopter had to stop its operations because it couldn't charge its batteries. The field-programmable gate array (FPGA), part of the helicopter's control system, was switched off because of the dust.
The helicopter's field-programmable gate array was powered down when the battery pack's state of charge dropped below a lower limit. It operates the heaters that allow the helicopter to survive frigid Martian nights, maintains precise spacecraft time, and controls when the helicopter is scheduled to wake up for communications with Perseverance.
During the day and night the helicopter is designed to turn components on and off. Ingenuity's onboard clock was reset when the FPGA switched off. The helicopter's time was out of sync with the rover when the sun rose. Ingenuity missed the check-in because it tried to contact Perseverance at the wrong time.
The check-in signal arrived on May 5 at 11:45 a.m. local Mars time. Ingenuity was able to establish a radio link and show that it was stable, at the right temperature, and its battery was up to 41% of capacity.
The good news is that there is an ongoing issue caused by the dust. It will be difficult for the helicopter to charge its batteries during the cold nights on Mars. Ingenuity was only designed for five flights, but has made 24 flights so far. The team knew that seasonal changes to the weather would create more challenges.
The Ingenuity team has always known that the Martian winter and dust storm season would present new challenges, specifically colder sols, an increase in atmospheric dust, and more frequent dust storms.
To try and keep Ingenuity going for as long as possible, the team has sent new commands to the helicopter. This saves on battery usage as the heaters consume a lot of power, but it does leave the helicopter's hardware exposed to cold temperatures, which is risky. The helicopter might be able to fly again if the hardware can survive several nights like this.
Tzanetos said that the top priority was to maintain communications with Ingenuity in the next few sols. We are hopeful that we can accumulate battery charge in order to return to nominal operations and continue our mission into the weeks ahead.
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