NASA loses contact with Mars rover!

MKSheppard · Post by **MKSheppard** » 2004-01-22 02:32pm

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,109207,00.html

PASADENA, Calif. — NASA's Spirit rover stopped transmitting data from Mars for more than 24 hours, mission managers said Thursday, calling it an "extremely serious anomaly."

NASA (search)last heard from Spirit early Wednesday. Since then, it has returned just random, meaningless radio noise -- and only then sporadically, scientists said. Initially, the scientists said they believed weather problems on Earth caused the glitch. They now said they believe the rover was experiencing hardware or software problems.

"This is a serious problem. This is an extremely serious anomaly," project manager Pete Theisinger said.

Spirit is one half of a $820 million mission. Its twin, Opportunity, is scheduled to land on Mars on Saturday.

NASA last heard from Spirit as it prepared to continue its work examining its first rock, just a few yards from its lander.

Since then, Spirit has transmitted just a few beeps to Earth in response to attempts to communicate with it. It has also skipped several scheduled communications opportunities, either directly with Earth or by way of two NASA satellites in orbit around Mars.

Engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (search) worked to pinpoint the yet-unknown problem.

"It's not clear there is one cause ... that would explain the observables we're seeing," deputy project manager Richard Cook said.

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2004-01-22 02:34pm

http://bbs.stardestroyer.net/viewtopic.php?t=38233

One step ahead of ya, bub.

El Moose Monstero · Post by **El Moose Monstero** » 2004-01-22 02:34pm

We've been discussing it over in OT, I'm afraid, although perhaps this version will be less devoted to references to various B movies...

Master of Ossus · Post by **Master of Ossus** » 2004-01-22 02:38pm

Due to the redundancy, I'm locking this thread. Take it to the other forum. Important story, though.