[Hiwayman]

Ctrl-Alt-Del didn't work, but I wouldn't bet against NASA/JPL getting it fixed and into "workable" order.

[TMSuchman]

This would not have happened if we had sent people up there instead! Just proves that nasa [read as; never a stright answer] can waste more money than we can provide!

[Steve Eisenberg]

It seems unlikely that they could have completely written their operating system from scratch. I wonder whose they modified and to what extent the choice was controversial.

[ambrose]

Spirit went on the blink Wednesday as it was carrying out a procedure to calibrate drive motors used by its thermal emission spectrometer. Prior to that moment, everything was operating normally. But some event, possibly a hardware failure of some sort, threw the rover's electronic brain for a loop.

[RightWhale]

Communication was at 120 bits per second. Like the old days of 300 baud modems, only even slower. Don't even think about graphics.

[mikrofon]

Time to bring in the Spirit Communications Specialist:

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Mars news!

See above!

[PFKEY]

Several people were touting the use of Linux as the OS on this rover. I wonder if they will be commenting on this excessive rebooting. I could care less whether it is Linux, MS, or OSX. Just find it funny that software, no matter who writes it has the potential to fail. Or it could just be a hardware problem and Lixus is rock solid.

[raybbr]

I am starting to think that something on Mars, an unkown element perhaps, is the cause of all these failures.

[Bars4Bill]

"This morning, we sent an early beep to the spacecraft and did not get a response," Theisinger said. "As we were preparing to send a second, the spacecraft talked to us. We got very fractional frames and then moved very quickly to ask it to speak to us for 30 minutes at 120 bits per second. We got 20 minutes of transmission in that occasion, which was a single frame of engineering data repeated.."

I suggest they send a third message threatening to off the little bastard, whereupon it might decide to cooperate.

[roadcat]

The telemetry, collected earlier and subjected to complex analysis, also shows how the rover bounced across the floor of Gusev Crater before finally rolling to a stop.

The thing was bouncing all over the ground, and worked flawlessly after landing. So how could the failure have been from simple motion rolling over rocks and pebbles? It's got to be an electrical short from static discharge, or a stupid software error. Did they waterproof the sucker? Maybe it got stuck in mud. ;>

[baclava]

Well hell, when's the next one due to land?

[Bush Cheney]

My guess is that something malfunctioned in the highly complicated robitic drilling arm (RAT).

[VRWC For Truth]

ummm,Sean ... Howard Dean's post Iowa caucii speech blew out the transmitter.

[upchuck]

I suspect one of the Delta Force Martians zapped Spirit with his ray gun. Now they're all sitting around just out of camera range, drinking beer, eating chips and laughing their asses off at us.

[eclectic]

Methinks the system is just too complex and overdesigned...
They shoud have sent a bunch of small single-instrument rovers instead

[sauropod]

If they get a BSOD, they're hosed.

Microsoft will probably be looking for a license agreement...

[Central Scrutiniser]

Mr. Grudgemeyer got to it:

[TMSuchman]

To All Those who responded to my posts;

Yes, I agree that exploration is very dangerous. Just look at our history here on Earth. Thousands of lives were lost in the exploration of our planet. We are driven by something deep down inside us to see what is over the next hill, around the river bend, over the next mountain.
But why send a robot,when it is more than ovious that only a person can do the job right, the first time. yes some may pass away [and it would be a terrible loss to us all], but it is the "cost" of our spreading across our universe. We must send astronauts back up into cosmos now! We have the technology, & the means to do, but due to the nay sayers, we may not have the will.

[boris]

Does the second rover use the same S/W, same version?

If so, its prognosis seems questionable.

Oops.