Posted on 01/22/2004 12:32:22 PM PST by 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.
Currently we are monitoring the Mars-Earth game which began in late 1960 and is still in progress. As far as we can tell, Earth has been the only Lobber, with scattered reports of a possibly thwarted Mars invasion of Earth in 1938.
For those of you just tuning in, here is the play-by-play.
Much thanks to Students for the Exploration and Development of Space for the history of the game and the National Space Science Data Center for the details of each goal and fumble.
And now, the game details:
| Score | Launch Date/Time (UTC) | Name | Player | Details | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0:0 | 1938 Oct 31 00:45:00 | (unpronounceable) | Mars | Various scattered reports detail an invasion force of hundreds at Grovers Mill, NJ from Mars on 1938 October 31 around 01:50:00 UTC. Unfortunately these reports are unsubstantiated, but even if true, the landers don't appear to have left with any information. Normally, this would be a point for Earth, but the dominant race, Homo Sapiens, don't appear to have done the damage, but rather viruses. So it's a contested play either way. | |
| 1:0 | 1960 Oct 10 14:27:49 | Marsnik 1 | Russia | The first play of the game and it's an incomplete. It appears that after launch, the third stage pumps were unable to develop enough thrust to commence ignition, so Earth parking orbit was not achieved. The spacecraft reached an altitude of 120 km before reentry. | |
| 2:0 | 1960 Oct 14 13:51:03 | Marsnik 2 | Russia | Yet another incomplete in exactly the same fashion. | |
| 3:0 | 1962 Oct 24 17:55:04 | Sputnik 22 | Russia | The spacecraft and attached upper stage either broke up as they were going into Earth orbit or had the upper stage explode in orbit during the burn to put the spacecraft into Mars trajectory. In either case, the spacecraft broke into many pieces, some of which apparently remained in Earth orbit for a few days. (This occurred during the Cuban missile crisis. The debris was detected by the U.S. Ballistic Missile Early Warning System radar in Alaska and was momentarily feared to be the start of a Soviet nuclear ICBM attack.) | |
| 4:0 | 1962 Nov 01 16:14:16 | Mars 1 | Russia | Early telemetry indicated that there was a leak in one of the gas valves in the orientation system so the spacecraft was transferred to gyroscopic stabilization. On its way to Mars, communications ceased, probably due to failure of the spacecraft orientation system. | |
| 5:0 | 1962 Nov 04 15:35:15 | Sputnik 24 | Russia | The booster and spacecraft broke up during the burn to transfer to Mars trajectory. Five large pieces were tracked by the U.S. Ballistic Missile Early Warning System. | |
| 6:0 | 1964 Nov 05 19:22:05 | Mariner 3 | USA | Earth puts in a new player, but a protective shield failed to eject after the spacecraft had passed through the Earth's atmosphere. None of the instrument sensors were uncovered, and the added weight prevented the spacecraft from attaining its prescribed Mars trajectory. | |
| 6:1 | 1964 Nov 28 14:22:01 | Mariner 4 | USA | EARTH SCORES!!!! Mariner 4 successfully flies by Mars on 1965 Jul 14 and returns the first pictures of the Martian Surface. | |
| 7:1 | 1964 Nov 30 13:12:00 | Zond 2 | Russia | One of the two solar panels failed so only half the anticipated power was available to the spacecraft. After a mid-course maneuver, communications with the spacecraft were lost in early May, 1965. The dormant spacecraft flew by Mars on 6 August 1965. | |
| 8:1 | 1967 Mar 27 | Unnamed | Russia | "Launch Failure" | |
| 8:2 | 1969 Feb 24 01:29:02 | Mariner 6 | USA | Earth scores another goal on 1969 Jul 31 with this flyby mission. | |
| 9:2 | 1969 Mar 27 10:40:45 | Mars 1969A | Russia | This Soviet Mars mission was never officially announced but has since been identified as a planned orbiter. After successful operation of the first two stages, the third stage launcher experienced a malfunction in a rotor bearing which caused the turbopump to catch fire. The engine shut down and exploded; the remains of the craft landing in the Altai mountains. | |
| 9:3 | 1969 Mar 27 22:22:01 | Mariner 7 | USA | In an amazing play to keep the game from being a shut-out, Mariner 7 flies by Mars on 1969 Aug 05. | |
| 10:3 | 1969 Apr 02 10:33:00 | Mars 1969B | Russia | OUCH! This Soviet Mars mission was never officially announced but has since been identified as a planned orbiter. The first stage of the launcher failed almost immediately. At 0.02 seconds after liftoff, one of the six first-stage rockets exploded. The control system initially compensated for the lost engine and the launch proceeded on 5 engines---until 25 seconds after liftoff, at approximately 1 km altitude, the rocket began to tip over to a horizontal position. The five engines shut down and the rocket impacted and exploded 41 seconds after liftoff approximately 3 km from the launch pad. |
And so we end the first decade with the score 10 to 3. Earth needs to rally in the next decade to keep from being demoted to division 2.
| Score | Date/Time (UTC) | Name | Player | Details | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11:3 | 1971 May 08 01:11:00 | Mariner 8 | USA | Just when you thought things were under control, the main Centaur engine was ignited 265 seconds after launch, but the upper stage began to oscillate in pitch and tumbled out of control. The Centaur stage shut down 365 seconds after launch due to starvation caused by the tumbling. The Centaur and spacecraft payload separated and re-entered the Earth's atmosphere approximately 1500 km downrange and fell into the Atlantic Ocean about 560 km north of Puerto Rico. Bummer. | |
| 12:3 | 1971 May 10 16:58:42 | Cosmos 419 | Russia | The booster successfully put the spacecraft into low Earth parking orbit, but the stage 4 failed to function due to a bad ignition timer setting (the timer, which was supposed to start ignition 1.5 hours after orbit, was erroneously set for 1.5 years.) The orbit decayed and the spacecraft re-entered Earth's atmosphere 2 days later on 12 May 1971. | |
| 12:4 | 1971 May 19 16:22:44 | Mars 2 | Russia | Beginning a short rally, Earth player Russia finally orbits Mars on 1971 Nov 27. The descent module, however, entered the Martian atmosphere at a steeper angle than planned. The descent system malfunctioned and the lander crashed at 45 deg S, 302 deg W, delivering the Soviet Union coat of arms to the surface. If you can recognize it. | |
| 12:5 | 1971 May 28 15:26:30 | Mars 3 | Russia | Following one good toss with another, Earth player Russia sends another orbiter/lander to Mars. Twenty seconds after landing, the lander stopped working... And did I mention that the orbiter had suffered from a partial loss of fuel and did not have enough to put itself into a planned 25 hour orbit? No matter. We got pictures! | |
| 12:6 | 1971 May 30 22:23:00 | Mariner 9 | USA | Mariner 9 arrived at Mars and began orbiting on 1971 Nov 14. We expect it to decay and plunge into the Martian atmosphere in late 2022. Where will you be? On Mars? | |
| 12:7 | 1973 Jul 21 19:30:59 | Mars 4 | Russia | A very close play. It reached Mars on 10 February 1974. Due to a flaw in the computer chip which resulted in degradation of the chip during the voyage to Mars, the retro-rockets never fired to slow the craft into Mars orbit, and Mars 4 flew by the planet at a range of 2200 km. It returned one swath of pictures and some radio occultation data which constituted the first detection of the nightside ionosphere on Mars. | |
| 12:8 | 1973 Jul 25 18:55:48 | Mars 5 | Russia | Another successful orbiter reaching mars on 1974 Feb 12. | |
| 13:8 | 1973 Aug 05 17:45:48 | Mars 6 | Russia | An overzealous attempt to land on the planet. Contact with the descent module was lost at 09:11:05 UT in "direct proximity to the surface", probably either when the retrorockets fired or when it hit the surface at an estimated 61 m/s. The descent module transmitted 224 seconds of data before transmissions ceased. Unfortunately, much of the data were unreadable due to a flaw in a computer chip which led to degradation of the system during its journey to Mars. | |
| 14:8 | 1973 Aug 09 17:00:17 | Mars 7 | Russia | A BAD FUMBLE! And so close, too. Due to a problem in the operation of one of the onboard systems (attitude control or retro-rockets) the landing probe separated prematurely (4 hours before encounter) and missed the planet by 1300 km. | |
| 14:9 | 1975 Aug 20 21:22:00 | Viking 1 | USA | One of the better remembered plays in the game. 1976 June 19 the orbiter began to orbit and the lander landed on July 20. | |
| 14:10 | 1975 Sep 09 18:39:00 | Viking 2 | USA | Again, a very famous play. Orbit on 1976 Aug 07 and a soft landing on September 03. |
Another decade is over and Earth has rallied well, but is still behind with the score at 14 to 10. Foul weather allowed for only two plays in the third decade:
| Score | Date/Time (UTC) | Name | Player | Details |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15:10 | 1988 Jul 07 17:38:04 | Phobos 1 | Russia | Phobos 1 operated nominally until an expected communications session on September 02 failed to occur. The failure of controllers to regain contact with the spacecraft was traced to an error in the software uploaded on 29/30 August which had deactivated the attitude thrusters. This resulted in a loss of lock on the Sun, causing the spacecraft to orient the solar arrays away from the Sun and depleting the batteries. |
| 15:11 | 1988 Jul 12 17:01:43 | Phobos 2 | Russia | In this oh-so-close play, Phobos 2 collected some useful data upon approach to one of the red planet's moons. Shortly before the final phase of the mission, during which the spacecraft was to approach within 50 m of Phobos' surface and release two landers, one a mobile `hopper', the other a stationary platform, contact with Phobos 2 was lost. Were it not for the earlier data collection, this play would have been lost. |
Entering decade four, Mars retains its four point lead.
| Score | Date/Time (UTC) | Name | Player | Details |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16:11 | 1992 Sep 25 17:05:01 | Mars Observer | USA | After all we have come to expect from this player, Mars Observer makes it all the way to Mars orbit insertion. After it's asked to pressurize a fuel tank... "In space, noone can hear you go BOOM" |
| 16:12 | 1996 Nov 07 17:00:50 | Mars Global Surveyor | USA | A fine recovery after the last "oops." Began orbiting Mars on 1997 Sep 12. |
| 17:12 | 1996 Nov 16 20:48:53 | Mars 96 | Russia | A swing and a miss. The spacecraft was launched into Earth orbit, but failed to achieve insertion into Mars cruise trajectory and re-entered the Earth's atmosphere at about 00:45 to 01:30 UT on 17 November and crashed within a presumed 320 km by 80 km area which includes parts of the Pacific Ocean, Chile, and Bolivia. The cause of the crash is not known. |
| 17:13 | 1996 Dec 04 06:58:00 | Mars Pathfinder | USA | Continuing to trade tit for tat, Mars Pathfinder lands on the Martian surface on 1997 Jul 04. |
| 18:13 | 1998 Jul 03 18:12:00 | Nozomi | Japan | In what can only be called the worst interplanetary tackle in the world, the Earth takes another swipe across the nose. On 20 December, the spacecraft attempted to use gravitational assist from an Earth flyby to put it on a course for Mars. Unfortunately, a malfunctioning valve caused excessive loss of fuel causing the spacecraft to miss its trajectory. Two further course corrections expended further fuel. To save the play, it was decided to allow the spacecraft to orbit the sun for four years when a lower velocity trajectory would be avaliable. However, on 2002 April 21, powerful solar flares damaged the spacecraft's onboard communications and power systems. An electrical short then shut down the heaters causing the hydrazine fuel to freeze. The spacecraft made it back for another Earth swing-by and the fuel was thawed out on 2003 June 19. Another attempt was made to put it back on course, but the main thruster orbital insertion burn failed on 9 December. A valliant effort, however. And Mars replied: "All your base are belong to us." |
| 19:13 | 1998 Dec 10 18:45:51 | Mars Climate Orbiter | USA | Yes folks, it's true. Not all of Earth's players use the same units for measurement. When you say "Enter the atmosphere at 57 km" and you mean "Enter the atmosphere at 57 miles" bad things can happen. I think it's time for a certain country to get with the program, don't you? |
| 20:13 | 1999 Jan 03 20:21:10 | Mars Polar Lander | USA | Marty took a very good pot-shot at this lander. The last telemetry from Mars Polar Lander was sent just prior to atmospheric entry on 3 December 1999. No further signals have been received from the lander, the cause of this loss of communication is not known. |
And we close out decade four with Mars pulling ahead with a 20 to 13 lead. We're now in decade five and we've started with a hot-streak:
| Score | Date/Time (UTC) | Name | Player | Details |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20:14 | 2001 Apr 07 15:02:22 | Mars Odyssey | USA | Made it to orbit on 2001 Oct 24 |
| 20:15 | 2003 Jun 02 17:45:00 | Mars Express | ESA | Mars Express fired its main thrusters on 25 December and has successfully gone into orbit around Mars. The Beagle 2 lander, however, has not been heard from. |
| 20:16 | 2003 Jun 10 17:58:47 | Spirit | USA | Showing team spirit, this rover has landed on Mars as of 2004 Jan 04. |
| ??:?? | 2003 Jul 08 03:18:15 | Opportunity | USA | Will we finally cut Mars' lead to a mere three points? We'll find out on January 25. |
That was Galileo. I had never seen a spacecraft taken apart and put back together as many times as that one. Mr. Peel and I would sometimes go over and watch their progress -- he swears the poor craft was suffering from metal fatigue before it ever got off the ground.
Mark
Where's the Kaboom?
And I thought it was /home/Mars/Where_tha_honiez as the directory?
;-)
Very true. In fact, another Linux aficionado would be confused on my Linux boxes. I mean, they are customized.
One of those dust devils could have got under the solar panel wing and flipped the contraption right over. An opportunity for the aeronautics dept to learn something.
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