Ingenuity had been nearing completion of its 72nd flight — a liftoff far past the threshold of "borrowed time" in this case, as the mighty craft was originally built for a mere maximum of five flights. The fate of Ingenuity was pretty uncertain for a short while.
However, I'm pleased to report that Ingenuity has officially regained communication with ground control and continues to surpass the limitations scientists once thought it'd need to live by. According to a Jan. 20 NASA post on X (formerly Twitter), Perseverance had conducted long-duration listening sessions to help pinpoint Ingenuity's signal.
Ingenuity launched to the Martian surface alongside the Perseverance rover on July 30, 2020. It landed on its target less than a year later, and soon began its mission of flying above the Red Planet to foremost gather information about whether it's possible to control an airborne vehicle on a world with a gravitational pull and atmosphere different from those of Earth.
Source: www.space.com
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