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Mars Rover Glitch
JPL ^
| 21 Jan 2004
| JPL
Posted on 01/21/2004 6:07:08 PM PST by Fitzcarraldo
MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109 TELEPHONE (818) 354-5011
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov
NEWS RELEASE: 2004-027
January 21, 2004 4 p.m. PST
MARS EXPLORATION ROVER MISSION STATUS
Ground controllers were able to send commands to the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit early Wednesday and received a simple signal acknowledging that the rover heard them, but they did not receive expected scientific and engineering data during scheduled communication passes during the rest of that martian day.
Project managers have not yet determined the cause, but similar events occurred several times during the Mars Pathfinder mission. The team is examining a number of different scenarios, some of which would be resolved when the rover wakes up after powering down at the end of the martian day (around midday Pacific time Wednesday).
The next opportunity to hear from the vehicle is when the rover may attempt to communicate with the Mars Global Surveyor orbiter at about 8:30 p.m. Pacific time tonight. A second communication opportunity may occur about two hours later during a relay pass via the Mars Odyssey orbiter. If necessary, the flight team will take additional recovery steps early Thursday morning (the morning of sol 19 on Mars) when the rover wakes up and can communicate directly with Earth.
Full details on the rover's status will be described in the next daily news conference Thursday at 9 a.m. Pacific time at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which will be broadcast live on NASA Television.
- end -
TOPICS: Front Page News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: mars; nasa; robot; rover; space
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To: Fitzcarraldo
Hope it's not a 404.
2
posted on
01/21/2004 6:07:53 PM PST
by
gitmo
(Who is John Galt?)
To: All
Cross your fingers, folks.
To: Fitzcarraldo
Uh-oh. Lots of data already sent, but lots more yet to go.
4
posted on
01/21/2004 6:08:30 PM PST
by
RightWhale
(Repeal the Law of the Excluded Middle)
To: Fitzcarraldo; bonfire; RadioAstronomer; bonesmccoy; Ernest_at_the_Beach; GeronL; glock rocks; ...
Uh oh.
5
posted on
01/21/2004 6:08:30 PM PST
by
Howlin
To: Fitzcarraldo
If they are running windows they probably need to reboot:\
6
posted on
01/21/2004 6:09:09 PM PST
by
Abogado
To: Fitzcarraldo
"Houston, we have a problem...."
7
posted on
01/21/2004 6:09:56 PM PST
by
Lawdoc
To: Howlin
The microbes in the soil must have disabled it.
8
posted on
01/21/2004 6:10:02 PM PST
by
TBall
To: Phil V.
ping
9
posted on
01/21/2004 6:10:24 PM PST
by
Pan_Yans Wife
(He who has never hoped can never despair.)
To: Howlin
"Thunderstorms in Australia have created a slow workday on Mars."
Could this . . .? Nah.
10
posted on
01/21/2004 6:10:28 PM PST
by
RightWhale
(Repeal the Law of the Excluded Middle)
To: Fitzcarraldo
The Blue Screen of Death?
Hope not.
11
posted on
01/21/2004 6:10:47 PM PST
by
DoctorMichael
(Thats my story, and I'm sticking to it.)
To: Fitzcarraldo
Other reports said that there were thunder storms in Australia where the rover's signals are currently being received causing communications problems.
12
posted on
01/21/2004 6:10:49 PM PST
by
DB
(©)
To: Howlin
Thanks for the ping. Was just showing my college son and his fiance the latest Rover pics.
Almost feel like Rover is "alive" and that we should pray or something!
13
posted on
01/21/2004 6:10:55 PM PST
by
bonfire
To: Abogado
If they're running Linux they may be in even more trouble. The only way to get tech support is to find a bunch of geeks and tell them Windows is better than Linux because Windows doesn't (whatever problem you're having with Linux.)
To: blam
Ping...
15
posted on
01/21/2004 6:12:05 PM PST
by
tubebender
(Don't believe anything you hear and only half of what you see...)
To: gitmo
Are they getting the dreaded Red "X"....
16
posted on
01/21/2004 6:12:31 PM PST
by
Dallas59
To: gitmo; RightWhale; bonesmccoy; XBob
17
posted on
01/21/2004 6:12:39 PM PST
by
snopercod
(You know something is going on here, but you don't know what it is, do you Mr. Jones?)
To: RightWhale
I heard on this morning's press conference they had trouble sending commands to the spacecraft earlier today because of rain over the Canberra, Australia tracking station. Maybe some garbled commands sent the rover off on an unplanned excursion.
To: Abogado
If they are using UNIX, they probably need to replace the spaces in the file names with underbars. :-)
To: Howlin
What we didn't do anything to the rover....don't blame us.
20
posted on
01/21/2004 6:13:21 PM PST
by
Dog
("America will never seek a permission slip to defend the security of our Country")
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