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After a short period of worrying silence, NASA said on Saturday night that it was able to regain contact with the Ingenuity helicopter. The autonomous aircraft unexpectedly ceased communications with the Perseverance rover, which relays all transmissions between Ingenuity and Earth, on Thursday during its 72nd flight on Mars. It had already been acting up prior to this, having cut its previous flight short for an unknown reason, and NASA intended to do a systems check during the latest ascent.

The space agency said in an update posted on X that it’s now reviewing the data from Ingenuity to understand what happened. Perseverance picked up its signal after the team instructed it to perform “long-duration listening sessions.” Ingenuity has experienced blackouts before, as recently as last year, and was able to return to flight. But it’s too early to say if that will be the case this time. The mini helicopter is already running well past the original timeline of its mission.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/nasa-says-its-reestablished-contact-with-the-ingenuity-mars-helicopter-165728606.html?src=rss 

NASA is trying to figure out how to reach its Ingenuity Mars helicopter after losing contact with the craft earlier this week. During its 72nd flight — a “quick pop-up” to an altitude of about 40 feet — NASA says Ingenuity stopped communicating with the Perseverance rover before it was meant to. It went quiet on Thursday, and as of Friday afternoon, NASA still hadn’t heard from it.

Perseverance serves the go-between for all communications to and from the helicopter; Ingenuity sends information to Perseverance, which then passes it on to Earth, and vice versa. According to NASA, the small helicopter completed the ascent as planned, but ceased communications while on its way back down. “The Ingenuity team is analyzing available data and considering next steps to reestablish communications with the helicopter,” NASA said in a status update on Friday. Ingenuity had previously ended a flight earlier than it was supposed to, and Thursday’s jaunt was meant to “check out the helicopter’s systems.”

Ingenuity has been on the red planet since 2021, when it arrived with the Perseverance rover. And it’s far exceeded its mission goals. NASA originally hoped the experimental helicopter would be able to complete a handful of flights. It went on to fly more than 20 times within its first year in operation. The space agency officially extended its mission in 2022, and it’s since executed dozens more more successful flights. Ingenuity is the first aircraft to take flight from the surface of Mars.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/nasas-ingenuity-helicopter-has-gone-silent-on-mars-195746735.html?src=rss 

Who doesn’t love showing off their collection of cool rocks? NASA was finally able to get into the asteroid Bennu sample container last week after struggling with it for a couple of months, and now, it’s sharing a look at what’s inside. The space agency published a high-resolution image of the newly opened Touch-and-Go-Sample Acquisition Mechanism (TAGSAM) on Friday, revealing all the dust and rocks OSIRIS-REx scraped off the asteroid’s surface.

The image is massive, so you can zoom in to see even the finer details of the sample. Check out the full-sized version on NASA’s website. There’s an abundance of material for scientists to work with, and as OSIRIS-REx team member Lindsay Keller said back in September, they plan to make the most of microanalytical techniques to “really tear it apart, almost down to the atomic scale.” Asteroid Bennu, estimated to be about 4.5 billion years old, may hold clues into the formation of our solar system and how the building blocks of life first came to Earth.

Scientists have already discovered signs of carbon and water in the excess material they found on the outside of the TAGSAM. While they’d hoped to get at least 2.1 ounces (60 grams) of regolith from the asteroid, OSIRIS-REx was able to grab much more. The team obtained 2.48 ounces (70.3 grams) just from the “bonus” material accumulated on the sample hardware. NASA plans to spend the next two years analyzing portions of the sample, but the majority of it will be preserved for future studies and to be shared with other scientists.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/take-a-look-at-the-full-asteroid-bennu-sample-in-all-its-glory-161309568.html?src=rss