At the end of last week, the Ingenuity helicopter managed to restore communication with the Perseverance rover after a short-term disruption: its onboard computer turned off due to lack of power.
Ingenuity was put into a state of reduced power consumption because the charge of six lithium-ion batteries fell below a critical level. Now the heating will turn on at -40°C, previously it happened at -15 °C. The problem is probably related to the approach of winter. At this time, more dust appears in the Martian atmosphere, and temperatures drop lower. Dust blocks some of the sunlight falling on the solar panel of the helicopter, which charges its batteries.
Over the next 10 weeks, it will only get colder on Mars, so it’s hard to guess how long the helicopter will be able to heat its batteries. To date, Ingenuity has made 28 flights and we can only hope that the helicopter will be able to make a few more.