NASA detects communication from too-quiet Mars rover

Houston Comical ^ | 1/23/04 | Mark Carreau and AP Staff

[LibertarianInExile]

They sent out a work order and a repairman already...but he had some problems working under such pressure.

[LibertarianInExile]

Shhhhhh! We're having EuroFrog calculate the exchange rates for the next increment of national debt payments due to foreign banks. Don't confuse him! :)

[JasonC]

"to turn on a drilling tool"

Um OK, first I'd heard of that. Suggests things, doesn't it? Drill turns on, instant glitch. Suggests hardware. Drill in contact with rock, rock chips fly, rock chips hit things, things stop working.

They say they are only getting "meaningless radio noise" or the safe mode beep. Suggests a problem with the transmitter. What is the layout of this? Anybody got a diagram?

[JasonC]

Another thread says, more specifically, that they were trying to calibrate the motors in the arm when the failure occurred. Which doesn't suggest bits of flying rock, but still does suggest a possible hardware problem. Perhaps all the heating and cooling cycles the thing has been through cracked something that failed when one motor was used at above a certain speed, or something similar. It sounds like the software has been rebooting over and over, but transmission is clear for limited periods, suggesting no serious damage to the actual transmitter or antennae.

[EuroFrog]

Ya ya ya, I made a mistake, sue me.

By the way, Im a she, not a he.

[2nd Amendment]

This has got to be a Democratic rover . . won't work and still on the government payroll!

[LibertarianInExile]

Sorry, I caught that after I saw another of your posts...but it was too late. I made a mistake, sue me. :)

[The_Victor]

Even the most minute mistakes do not go unnoticed on this forum. I suspect the new "Spell" button has cut the post volume significantly. We can't pick on each other's spelling errors as much anymore. Unless JimRob has gone WICCA, and every time we hit "Spell" it casts a hex on the democRATs.

[EuroFrog]

Hexes on the democrats wouldn't be such a bad thing....Shoot, just sit back and watch them hex themselves every time they open their mouths.

[<1/1,000,000th%]

Spirit was only the fourth of 13 spacecraft to complete the seven-month journey successfully over the past 34 years.

I've gone stupid again. I count 2 Viking landers, the 2 current orbiters, the Carl Sagan station, a couple of Mariners and the European orbiter. Where does 4 come from????

[hosepipe]

INPUT......need INPUT....