Alien life hunter ship unexpectedly revives

(NLDO) - 11 months after the abrupt end of its mission, the alien life-hunting spacecraft Ingenuity has begun a new mission.

According to the latest update from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), remote checks have helped determine that 72 sensors and batteries of the alien life-hunting spacecraft Ingenuity are still working properly.

So NASA announced it would resume operations after eight months of "clinical death" on Mars, this time as a permanent weather monitoring station.

NASA's alien life hunter Ingenuity - Photo: NASA

Ingenuity is a small helicopter-like robotic lander that landed in Mars' Jezero Crater region on February 18, 2021, along with another lander, the Perseverance rover.

The pair are tasked with searching for signs of alien life, with Ingenuity, which can fly at low altitudes, acting as a scout for Perseverance.

However, in January this year, NASA was forced to declare the end of the Ingenuity mission after it crashed on its final flight.

Perseverance tried to find its companion, but severe damage to its propellers and electromechanical equipment related to its flight ability forced Ingenuity to abandon its journey with a touching "will" sent back to Earth.

In a new statement, Ingenuity project manager at JPL Teddy Tzanetos said the life-hunting rover still has one "final gift."

Now, this robot helicopter will stay where it crashed and act as a weather station, recording telemetry data, taking pictures every day on Mars and archiving this data.

One of the problems is that its companion, Perseverance, has moved quite far away. Previously, Ingenuity had been communicating indirectly with the ground through this rover.

It is now forced to communicate directly via radio link with the mission team on Earth, but that line of communication could be permanently disrupted within the next month.

However, Ingenuity can continue to operate and save what it records, waiting for years for another spacecraft or astronauts to directly arrive on Mars to retrieve this archived data.

NASA has previously announced plans to return to Mars, with the biggest ambitions being a crewed flight and even a Mars base.

Source: https://nld.com.vn/tau-san-su-song-ngoai-hanh-tinh-cua-nasa-hoi-sinh-bat-ngo-196241214064852646.htm