The helicopter was already out of sight and at a distance of ~1km, as seen in the map below. There is an obstructing mound about midway that rises 13m above the line-of-sight, which might be the reason for the loss of signal. Despite that, assuming Ingenuity's landing software worked as usual, the helicopter may be in good health, but
The fact that there is just one image from #Flight71 attests to the fact that communication with the rover was already bad before the flight, and probably remained bad after popup #Flight72 which landed at about the same location.
My access to the image server is down at the moment, but IIRC there were no actual images from flight 71 on sol 1023, we just have the 2 post-flight ground images from sol 1027.
Comms appeared to be OK in the sols leading up to flight 72 as they downlinked over 150 images from flight 70 (including 6 RTE's). I assume they sent the commands for the pop up flight 72. So maybe the comms were not that bad leading up to the flight. Need more info from the team...
I don't know whether those images were downlinked directly from the helicopter or were stored in the rover for some time. This procedure is still not clear to me, and it may be different every time. So comms being OK up to flight 72 may not be the case. Too many unknowns.
@65dBnoise When I first saw that image, I thought maybe the bottom corner or edge of the electronics box might have made contact since it does seem to have that linear 90 degree "V" shape to it. Of coarse the only ways that I can think of for that to happen is if touchdown was so hard that it flexed the legs enough for the box to hit or if there was a maneuver so wild that it would have been practically damn near mission ending. Or It was either already there or the landing feet somehow did it.
@thedudeabidez88
It's like it wants to tell a story, isn't it? It'll be a pity not to see photographs from flight 72, which would show the extent of the marks on the regolith.
That groove seems too fresh and flat cut to have been there before Ingenuity landed.
The animation below shows an approximation of radio coverage from ground level, 8m and 12m altitude. Even at the highest point in its #Flight72, the #MarsHelicopter was obstructed and had no LOS with #Perseverance.
The location of the helicopter is guessed.
However, there is one more factor that may be worrying about the physical condition of the heli, and that is the visible groove on the regolith beneath its body, that looks
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