back to article NASA lost contact with Mars helicopter Ingenuity, then managed to find it again

NASA regained contact with its Mars helicopter, Ingenuity, on Saturday two days after it lost communication as the vehicle descended from its most recent flight. The loss of contact with its counterpart rover Perseverance occurred last Thursday during Flight 72, which the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) described as "a quick …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Send Elon Musk to dig it out ASAP!

    1. Anonymous Coward Silver badge
      Alien

      Why do you think he set up "the boring company"?

      It's all a brilliant synergy.

      Actually, just trying to launch a super-heavy might be a quicker way of digging down if you don't need the hole to be neat...

      1. Tom Chiverton 1 Silver badge

        Nuke the site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          "Nuke the site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure."

          To be sure of what, exactly?

          Nuking the surface and hoping the blast penetrates hundreds of metres down to the ice, will probably end up irradiating the ice making it unsuitable for use.

          And for such a rare material to be made useless, makes no sense, especially when the alternative is to transport more from Earth (and with all the negative ramifications that might involve).

          1. Spherical Cow Silver badge

            That movie reference? I'm not saying it was Aliens, but it was Aliens.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Wait, I thought he named the company after one of his own characteristics? Learned something new..

        :)

  2. DJV Silver badge

    Measurements

    "It's so much water that the ESA said the ice deposits could fill the Earth's Red Sea."

    What's that Olympic-sized swimming pools? Or in Wales to the depth of Snowdon?

    1. FIA Silver badge

      Re: Measurements

      About 93,200 OSSP if my maths is right. :)

      1. Spherical Cow Silver badge

        Re: Measurements

        Also just one OSSP if it is a very deep one. The rules specify a minimum depth but not a maximum depth.

    2. Andy The Hat Silver badge

      Re: Measurements

      Perhaps the size of Wales and 100 whales deep.

  3. Andy The Hat Silver badge

    1000 days

    ... and they still haven't planted a spud ...

    1. Spherical Cow Silver badge

      Re: 1000 days

      Where would they get the, erm, fertiliser?

  4. arachnoid2

    Nukle the alien beaches

    Im sure a tactical nuke or two would uncover the ice and its not like they are doing anything sat in their silos for years just being proded now and again by the techs..

    1. Version 1.0 Silver badge
      Boffin

      Re: Nukle the alien beaches

      Imagine a radical form of life (completely unknown to us) on or "in" Mars that is looking up at the "alien spacecraft" that are appearing on the planet ... but could it be that about a billion years ago our little ancestral fish, walking our of the sea around the Earth, started to evolve to hide from helicopters sent from other planets?

      As humans today we can see what is happening recently but only hopefully guess what might happen in the very distant future.

      1. This post has been deleted by its author

  5. HuBo Silver badge
    Alien

    bit of boring drill

    Dear MFF (Martian Friend Forever), sorry about the lack of ice cubes in last Friday's evening bloody mary ... I've now ordered a brand new boring drill bit with next launch day delivery to remedy this at once (I hear there is a HUGE freezer full of the stuff right under our green feet)!

    -- your Express MARSIS FREND (rejoicing in advance!)

  6. TVU

    I like the way that Ingenuity is able to photograph its own shadow when it is doing a rather good impression of a dragonfly.

  7. ldo Silver badge

    Linux On Mars

    Let us not forget what OS humanity’s first extraterrestrial aircraft is running.

    1. david 12 Silver badge

      Re: Linux On Mars

      -- and that it has available around 100 times more compute power

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