E.T. phone home

The engineers and scientists at NASA are some of the smartest people in the world — their mission calls for them to explore the unknown in air and space, innovate for the benefit of humanity, and inspire the world through discovery — but they need some help with their interpersonal skills.

How do I know this?

The Mars Ingenuity helicopter spoke last week for the first time after 63 days of silence. The Mars Ingenuity helicopter communicated with its NASA handlers on June 28 via its robotic partner, the Perseverance rover. The little chopper took to the Martian skies on April 26 for its 52nd flight but lost contact with mission control before landing, creating the communications blackout.

In an effort to help the folks with NASA, I’m offering them some suggestions to help them the next time one of their helicopters runs away from home or loses contact with Mission Control or shuts itself in its room and refuses to come out.

Here’s my advice — simple, but still very effective:

–Communication is a two way street. Listen, listen, listen.

–Communicate in a clear, concise, and consistent way.

–Find time to talk everyday. Yes, Ingenuity is a machine, but you might want to check-in regularly instead of letting it go numerous days before you start worrying that it’s gone rogue.

NASA was fortunate that Ingenuity like E.T. in the movie E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial pointed his crooked finger into the sky and figured out a way to phone home again. The mission team anticipated that radio silence might occur, but not this long. In their prepared statement, NASA officials said, “We’re excited to be back in communications range with Ingenuity and receive confirmation of Flight 52.”

Yea, they need to work on their press releases too. When my kids were younger and walked through the door after being out late, I know I let out a deep sigh of relief. The least the NASA officials could have said was that officials are relieved to be communicating again with Ingenuity and that they’re punishing the little helicopter by grounding it and taking away its social media and texting privileges for two weeks.

What do you think? Does that sound like an appropriate punishment?

Images by Pixabay.