NASA Unable to Communicate with Mars Rover

Reuters ^ | Thu, Jan 22, 2004

[presidio9]

NASA scientists said on Thursday they had lost contact with the robot rover Spirit on Mars and were unsure what had caused the problem.

Spirit project manager Pete Theisinger told a news briefing that there was a "very serious anomaly" in communications with the six-wheeled craft, which landed on Mars on Jan. 3 on a planned three-month mission to explore the geologic history of the planet.

Theisinger said scientists had been unable to communicate with Spirit for about 24 hours and had so far been unable to explain the source of the problem.

"There is not one single fault that explains this," Theisinger said, adding that mission scientists had worked throughout the night on scenarios ranging from a major power failure to a software or memory corruption.

Mission managers said Spirit was not completely dead, and had sent out a communication beep and default signals. But they said several attempts since Wednesday afternoon to send commands to the rover and to receive data from it via the Mars Global Surveyor orbiter and the Mars Odyssey orbiter had failed.

The grim news dampened the elated atmosphere at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, where mission controllers have delighted up until now at the virtually flawless landing on Mars.

Spirit last week began its first tentative journeys sampling the surface soil of the Gusev Crater -- a barren, wind-swept basin that scientists believe may have been the site of an ancient lake bed once fed by a Martian river.

The first hitch in the mission came on Wednesday when a thunderstorm in Canberra, Australia, prevented mission controllers from transmitting command sequences from the Canberra large dish antenna complex to Spirit on its 18th day on the red planet.

Project managers initially seemed unconcerned at the setback but are now examining whether the communications glitch may have contributed to the more serious problems with Spirit.

Mission managers said on Thursday that the Spirit communications problems would have no effect on the scheduled arrival on Saturday on the opposite side of Mars of Spirit's twin exploration rover, Opportunity.

The two robotic rovers are the most advanced missions to date in man's 40-year quest to discover the geologic history of Mars and whether it was ever sufficiently warm or wet enough to sustain a recognizable form of life.

[js1138]

I have no idea what the trouble is, but I find it amusing that all the Java folks were bragging about it just moments before the problem. Something about pride, I imagine.

My personal guess is hardware failure.

[clamper1797]

Wonder what they found ....

[Doctor Stochastic]

I hope the Europeans don't gloat over this as much as some posters did over the Beagle failure.

[Deo volente]

Yes, and NASA is hard at work trying to discover if there are rocks on other planets, too.

http://www.confusionroad.com/article.php?article_id=208

[CasearianDaoist]

Scuttlebutt is that is was a garbled transmizion that had some sort of effect on the command loop. They may be able to reset.

[js1138]

Gotta watch those garbled transmizion. Haven't they heard of CRC?

[RightWhale]

They will gloat with better style, but only after passing an EU resolution agreeing on the content of the gloat.

[BenLurkin]

NASA - 22 Jan 2004

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

. .

National Aeronautics and Space Adiministation

. . .

IMAGE FOLLOWS:

. . . .

LAST PHOTO RECEIVED from MARS exploaration rover "SPIRIT" before loss of contact:

. . . . .

. . . . . .

[Professional Engineer]

LMAO

[Veritas_est]

Just one more runaway renegade machine. It's a conspiracy.

WARNING
THIS MACHINE IS SUBJECT TO BREAKDOWN
DURING PERIODS OF
CRITICAL NEED
A special circuit in this machine called a "critical detector" senses the operator's emotional state in terms of how desperate the user is to use the machine. The "critical detector" then creates a malfunction proportional to the desperation of the operator. Threatening the machine with violence only aggravates the situation. Likewise, attempts to use another machine may cause it to also malfunction. They belong to the same union and political party. Keep cool and say nice things to the machine. Nothing else works.
NEVER LET ANYTHING MECHANICAL KNOW YOU'RE IN A HURRY

[Revolting cat!]

Shoulda used him!

[Ingtar]

Maybe their Java license expired?

[VulgarWit]

"There is not one single fault that explains this," Theisinger said...

There are many...

1. Java
2. Java Beans
3. Java Virtual Machine
4. Java Applets
5. Java...
6. ...

[Kirkwood]

"I wonder if the Beagle2 crashed into it?"

Pooped on it?

[MrsEmmaPeel]

I was at JPL when we lost Voyager for 48 hours or so while it was behind Saturn ("occultation"). The first image of the closest approach to Saturn was just deep space. Turned out the scanning platform stuck -- but the spacecraft was receiving and acknowledging signals -- very slowly it was able to reset itself and the next picture was a pretty view of of the rings.

The soviets did a cool trick -- we used to call it: "Phoebus Emulation Mode" -- they had 2 Mars orbiters/surveyors of the moons of Mars. A greenie soviet techie told the spacecraft to move the antenna away from earth and forgot to give it instructions to move it back. This same thing was done with a US technician with Viking -- Viking was told to move its antenna into a "stowed" position and they forgot to give it the command to unstow it. So Viking's antenna is pointed at its foot and waiting for a response from Earth to this day.

[N3WBI3]

I guess we made him mad this time

[mhking]

Call Slim Whitman! AAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!

Just damn.

If you want on the list, FReepmail me. This IS a high-volume PING list...

[observer5]

Java sucks. I remember all the Hupla about how is was the best thing ever. Doesn't it freeze up your PC regularly?

[Blue Screen of Death]

It's the dreaded BSOD!!!!

Blame, blame, blame.

[John H K]

Was it one of the Voyagers or Galileo where the primary comm antenna NEVER worked?

I was reading a site listing all the interplanetary attempts...was dumbstruck at the VAST number..dozens and dozens...of Soviet Mars or Venus probes that never left earth orbit (their scheme was to orbit first and then leave).

On one there was a timer set to fire the burn for Venus or whatever a certain number of minutes after orbit. But the technician set it for DAYS not minutes. Do'h!