- The Ingenuity helicopter paved new ground (air?) in April 2019, when it communicated data of its first flight—the first powered, controlled flight on another planet—to NASA scientists on Earth.
- But now, it seems Ingenuity isn’t interested in communicating with its engineering team at all; as of late, the Mars helicopter has only communicated with NASA scientists intermittently and unpredictably.
- The communication breakdown is making it difficult for the Ingenuity team to guide the craft around the Martian landscape—and crucially, both within range but safely away from the Perseverance rover, the real star of the Mars 2020 program.
