I don’t want ANYBODY giving me crap about why I can’t diagnose their hardware/software problems from a distance anymore after this:
(FYI I am excerpting verbosely because some old links I had to articles at Fox no longer work.)
[I just realized I could put this in an extended entry…so I moved it.]
NASA Gets Half-Hour of Signals From Mars Rover
Friday, January 23, 2004
PASADENA, Calif. – NASA received data from the Spirit rover (search) Friday morning for the first time in two days, easing scientists’ anxiety that the Mars mission had come to a calamitous halt.
The six-wheeled rover communicated for 10 minutes at about 4:30 a.m. and transmitted “limited data” for 20 minutes about an hour later, officials said in statements early Friday.
“The spacecraft sent limited data in a proper response to a ground command, and we’re planning for commanding further communication sessions later today,” said Pete Theisinger, rover project manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (search).
Engineers are eager to pore over data from Spirit to assess the health of the spacecraft, pinpoint any problems and allow NASA to begin working on a potential fix or fixes.
Scientists planned a Friday morning news conference to explain the signals. Officials said Friday’s signals were received by NASA’s Deep Space Network antenna complex near Madrid, Spain.
Since Wednesday, its 19th day on Mars, the Spirit had sent back to Earth only meaningless radio noise or simple beeps acknowledging receipt of commands.
Among the possible causes: a corruption of its software or computer memory. If the software is awry, NASA can fix it from Earth by beaming patches across more than 100 million miles of space or by rebooting the rover’s computer. But if the problem lies with the rover’s hardware, the situation would be far more grave — perhaps beyond repair.
Baffled scientists were still working to pinpoint the trouble Friday morning.
“It is precisely like trying to diagnose a patient with different symptoms that don’t corroborate,” said Firouz Naderi, manager of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory Mars exploration program.
Spirit is one-half of an $820 million mission. Its twin, Opportunity, is expected to land on Mars late Saturday. The twin rovers are supposed to examine the Red Planet’s dry rocks and soil for evidence that it was once wetter and more hospitable to life.
Until Wednesday, Spirit had functioned almost flawlessly and NASA scientists and engineers had been jubilant.
Cushioned by its air bags, the rover made a bull’s-eye landing, surviving what was by far the most dangerous part of the mission — the descent through the atmosphere at 12,000 mph. Then on Jan. 15, in another nail-biting moment for NASA, the rover safely rolled down a ramp onto Mars’ ruddy soil without becoming snagged.
*snip*