The 1.8 kg helicopter flew 187 meters on December 5th. The mission team members said that during the descent of the helicopter, the Gizmo and its robot partner, NASA’s Mars rover Persverance (Persverance) 'S communication was interrupted. All data and photos of Gizmo were first forwarded to the Perseverance probe, and then forwarded to Earth via the Mars Orbiter.
Teddy Tzanetos, head of the WIT team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, wrote in a blog post on December 7: “All available telemetry data during and after the flight indicate that the event was a success , The loss of communication was due to a problem with the radio configuration between Perseverance and Wit during the landing."
"However, before planning our next flight, we need to transfer the data lost from this flight from the helicopter to the rover, and then to the earth, so that we can confirm the health of the vehicle," Tzanetos added.
Tzanetos explained that two factors caused the communication interruption: one was the terrain. When the Wit descended to its landing site, it and Perseverance were blocked by a 4-meter-high hill, which the team called "Bra". Another problem is the direction of the rover. Perseverance’s radio communications had to pass through most of the rover’s body, including its radioisotope thermoelectric generator.
