--- title: "Immortal Mars Helicopter Still Soars After Emergency Landing, Takes Photo of Its Buddy" description: "After NASA's Mars helicopter ghosted for two months and then fell down on the job, we're pleased to report that Ingenuity is back at it again." date: "2023-08-08" modified: "2023-08-08" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/mars-helicopter-flies-emergency-landing" categories: - "Astronomy" - "Mars" - "Space" tags: - "ingenuity" - "mars rover" - "NASA" - "the digest" --- # Immortal Mars Helicopter Still Soars After Emergency Landing, Takes Photo of Its Buddy ![NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS]() ## Nevertheless, She Persisted After NASA's Mars helicopter [ghosted for two months]() and then fell down on the job, we're pleased to report that Ingenuity is back at it again and snapping photos of its bestie, the Perseverance Rover. In a [press release]() about the maneuver, NASA noted that Ingenuity's Earthbound operators had the chopper perform "a short hop" so its humans could better understand why its last flight had been so rudely interrupted. On July 22, a few weeks after Ingenuity finally made contact following silence between late April and early July, NASA and CalTech's Jet Propulsion Laboratory slated the chopper to undertake a "136-second scouting flight dedicated to collecting imagery of the planet’s surface." Ingenuity only got halfway through that brief flight before something triggered a LAND\_NOW code, the helicopter's flight-contingency program. As a result, Ingenuity grounded itself in an emergency landing. Along with the data from its successful hop, Ingenuity also sent its Earthlings another communiqué: a photo of the Martian surface, with the Perseverance Rover seen just at the top of it as if waving hello in a cut-off photo taken by a clueless uncle. https://twitter.com/NASAPersevere/status/1688710171294601216 ## Confidence Man The chopper's handlers are, as the news release notes, "confident" that they understood the issue Ingenuity faced causing it to engage in an automatic landing: a syncing problem with its navigational camera, which made it difficult for the robotic craft to know where it was, or how fast it was going. As with most off-world robotics, even the July 22 disruption has provided affirming data for NASA and the JPL about the [little helicopter that could](). "While we hoped to never trigger a LAND\_NOW, this flight is a valuable case study that will benefit future aircraft operating on other worlds,” Teddy Tzanetos, JPL's team lead emeritus for Ingenuity, said in the press statement. "The team is working to better understand what occurred in \[July\], and with \[this latest flight's\] success we’re confident that our baby is ready to keep soaring ahead on Mars." It looks like this "baby," to use Tzanetos' words, will live to fly another day — and we, like NASA and the JPL, couldn't be happier about it. **More on Mars:** [*NASA Rover Finds Organic Molecules on Mars*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()