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NASA Unable to Communicate with Mars Rover
Reuters ^
| Thu, Jan 22, 2004
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.
TOPICS: Culture/Society; Front Page News; Government; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: jpl; mars; nasa; rover; space
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1
posted on
01/22/2004 12:32:23 PM PST
by
presidio9
To: presidio9
I wonder if the Beagle2 crashed into it?
2
posted on
01/22/2004 12:35:23 PM PST
by
saveliberty
(Liberal= in need of therapy, but would rather ruin lives of those less fortunate to feel good)
To: presidio9
I wonder what happened. Everything was working "Optimal" up until this. Hmmmmm.
To: Bush Cheney
Batteries stopped charging?
To: Bush Cheney
Batteries stopped charging?
To: presidio9
It's dead Jim
6
posted on
01/22/2004 12:37:45 PM PST
by
pbear8
(no complaining...Thanks be to God)
To: presidio9
NASA Unable to Communicate with Mars Rover Rover is from Mars, NASA is from Venus?
7
posted on
01/22/2004 12:37:46 PM PST
by
malakhi
To: presidio9
I think this problem occurred about thirty seconds after someone bragged about the thing running on Java.
8
posted on
01/22/2004 12:39:44 PM PST
by
js1138
To: presidio9; rdb3; chance33_98; Calvinist_Dark_Lord; Bush2000; PenguinWry; GodGunsandGuts; ...
It's the dreaded BSOD!!!!
9
posted on
01/22/2004 12:40:11 PM PST
by
ShadowAce
(Linux -- The Ultimate Windows Service Pack)
To: Bush Cheney
Several possibilities. One was faulty memory, bad chip. Another was a bad line of code. Another was it might have fallen into a water-filled sinkhole with only the antenna sticking out. Or maybe a Mars dog felt the need to mark its territory.
10
posted on
01/22/2004 12:42:21 PM PST
by
RightWhale
(Repeal the Law of the Excluded Middle)
To: js1138
ClassDefNotFound Exception?
NullPointException?
11
posted on
01/22/2004 12:43:03 PM PST
by
Blzbba
To: Bush Cheney
12
posted on
01/22/2004 12:45:08 PM PST
by
BenLurkin
(Socialism is Slavery)
To: presidio9
UGHHHHHHH....Phone home lil'fella!!
To: Blzbba
Buffer overrun?
c: not found :-)
14
posted on
01/22/2004 12:46:57 PM PST
by
commish
(Freedom Tastes Sweetest to Those Who Have Fought to Preserve It)
To: BenLurkin
I'm with you. A Martian pulled out a wire. Ever notice how many Martian landers "fail"?
15
posted on
01/22/2004 12:49:08 PM PST
by
colorado tanker
("There are but two parties now, Traitors and Patriots")
To: presidio9
It just took the Martian HAZMAT response team a while to locate it. They were busy with the Beagle.
16
posted on
01/22/2004 12:50:03 PM PST
by
JOAT
To: presidio9
Well, thank God we discovered there are rocks on Mars before we lost contact. Reddish-brown rocks, brownish-red rocks, big rocks, small rocks, rocks of many shapes. And all this at a cost to taxpayers of $847,064,933,528,719,406,637,182. More or less.
Next for NASA: a new flavor of Tang!
To: presidio9
Well there is another thread here somewhere from this morning that had a link to a website that shows a picture from the Spirit. Supposedly this was a picture of a DUNE BUGGY.......... Maybe he's been hijacked...........
18
posted on
01/22/2004 12:52:48 PM PST
by
isatoi
(Yesterday is history. Tomorrow a mystery.. Today is a gift. That's why it's called the present!)
To: ShadowAce
When in doubt, reboot.
19
posted on
01/22/2004 12:56:57 PM PST
by
Only1choice____Freedom
(The word system implies they have done something the same way at least twice)
To: southernnorthcarolina
Re:
Well, thank God we discovered there are rocks on Mars before we lost contact. Reddish-brown rocks, brownish-red rocks, big rocks, small rocks, rocks of many shapes. And all this at a cost to taxpayers of $847,064,933,528,719,406,637,182. More or less. Hummmmmmm...
Do you by chance have a relative who goes by the ID of "from occupied ga?" If so, ask him to name the three guys he says Apollo 11 'landed' on the Moon?
20
posted on
01/22/2004 12:57:04 PM PST
by
sonofatpatcher2
(Love & a .45-- What more could you want, campers? };^)
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