NASA makes progress fixing one Mars rover, another ready to land

AP ^ | 1.24.04 | AP

[ambrose]

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NASA makes progress fixing one Mars rover, another ready to land

By Andrew Bridges
ASSOCIATED PRESS

12:21 p.m. January 24, 2004

NASA

The history of Mars Exploration Rover Spirit's descent and landing on Jan. 3, 2004, on the surface of Mars is recorded in this image taken on Monday by the orbiting Mars Global Surveyor.

Mars photo gallery

PASADENA – NASA said Saturday it made progress in fixing its malfunctioning rover Spirit on Mars as it prepared to land a second rover on the Red Planet.

"We made good progress overnight," project manager Pete Theisinger said during a news conference at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "The rover has been upgraded from critical to serious."

NASA said it had received some data from the rover and developed a theory concerning its problem.

Scientists said they managed to reset Spirit's computer and put the rover into what's called "cripple" mode to bypass software problems.

Still, the problems may prevent the rover from taking another drive on Mars for as long as three weeks.

Spirit began to malfunction on Wednesday, when it ceased communicating with Earth other than to spew gibberish or terse beeps to acknowledge commands sent to it. The six-wheeled rover resumed transmitting data on Friday, but only in limited batches.

Scientists said Opportunity, the second rover, was on course to land at 9:05 p.m. Saturday in Meridiani Planum, 6,600 miles and halfway around Mars from Spirit, which landed Jan. 3 in Gusev Crater.

Together, the twin rovers make up a single $820 million mission to determine if Mars ever was a wetter world capable of sustaining life.

  

On the Net:

marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov

NASA / Associated Press

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[farmfriend]

ping

[farmfriend]

terse beeps

Don't you have to have emotion in order to be terse?

[Dog]

What is "cripple" mode?

[ambrose]

Good point... tin foil hat... could this "gibberish" have any greater meaning? Hope someone is working on decoding...

[Sacajaweau]

btt

[per loin]

Scientists said Opportunity, the second rover, was on course to land at 9:05 p.m. Saturday...

I reckon I'll hafta send the AP another press release letting them know that there are 24 time zones on the planet.

[Tacis]

Shouldn't they start explaining why the 2nd one isn't working before it lands? It saves a lot of time and uncertainty. My bet is that the Martians are sneaking up behind our hardware and unplugging something.

[Clara Lou]

It would be interesting to know if Spirit's software problem could be a problem for Opportunity as well. I'd like to have NASA's comment on this, because I know they're thinking about it already.

[Clara Lou]

Cripple mode, I'm willing to bet, is the same as "safe mode" on a PC-- only the most basic applications run.

[JasonC]

Like booting your computer with minimal drivers, after a hard disk crash. It means they aren't running half the software programs that normally run, and instead are only running a select few, that do things like monitor the power system and run the communications gear.

[JasonC]

They can't keep it from landing. It is on a ballistic trajectory. They already shot the bullet out of the gun - it will hit its target no matter what they do.

[Monty22]

I'm surprised the thing just didn't die. Guess they really do have a decent backup plan.

[TruthNtegrity]

Whoever tested the software ought to be getting some serious questioning about now.

And your assumption is correct. If the first one failed, what's to keep the second one from doing the same thing?

Testing. I do it. Would like to go back to work.

No one ever wants to pay enough for it, or dedicate the time to it that is required, and this is what you get.

[MediaMole]

Cripple mode? How terribly incorrect.

Differently-abled mode, perhaps. Maybe "special" mode.

I know... FDR mode.

[Shanty Shaker]

Probaly the mode that comes up when you hold f8 while booting......lol!

[Phil V.]

If you'd like to be on or off this MARS ping list please FRail me

[Calvin Locke]

...are 24 time zones on the planet.

Actually, there are more than that recognized. Newfoundland, Kabul, and Katmandu off the top of my head.

Art Bell used to say something like "in all 24...". I sent him an email complaining, er, correcting his misinformation. About a month later,
he stopped saying it.

Okay, he mentioned he got a bunch of messages...

[bonesmccoy]

I think the PC term would be "selectively advantaged".

LOL

[Noumenon]

Some Martian hacker has hijacked it and is using its IP to launch DoS attacks on Uranus.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.