This sounds bad. NASA Team Loses Contact with Mars Rover PASADENA (Reuters) - NASA scientists said on Thursday that 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, adding that scientists had so far been unable to explain the source of the problem.
More... 'Serious Anomaly' Silences Mars Spirit Rover By Leonard David Senior Space Writer PASADENA, Calif. -- Mars Rover officials at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory announced Thursday that "a serious anomaly" occurred onboard the robot Spirit Wednesday stopping the transmission of direct data for almost 24 hours. Peter Theisinger, Mars Exploration Rover project manager, began Thursday's press conference by telling reporters that they had not received contact from Spirit, either through relays from the Mars Global Surveyor or the Mars Odyssey spacecraft now orbiting the red planet. However, Jennifer Trosper, mission manager of Surface Operations, interrupted the press briefing to announch that a signal had been recieved from the rover via its direct link to Earth. That said, no direct data had yet to be received from the robotic geologist. Theisinger explained that the situation remains serious and that "no one single fault ... that we can conceive of" can explain this anamoly. A communiqué released late afternoon Wednesday from JPL indicated an unresolved issue with the status of the Spirit Mars rover. According to the statement, ground controllers were able to send commands to the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit early Wednesday and received a simple signal acknowledging that the rover heard them. However, ground controllers here did not receive expected scientific and engineering data from Spirit during scheduled communication passes during the rest of that martian day. http://space.com/missionlaunches/spirit_silent_040122.html
Let's invade mars for f-king up our rover. You are with us, or against us, and Mars is clearly against us. Either that or the Spirit hates America.
So, which is harder, controlling a vehicle millions of miles away through a barren wasteland of a foreign planet, or surviving the Katy Freeway during rush hour?
No...let's invade Syria. Latest intelligence suggests Syria had their scientists implant a backdoor password into the software the Rover Spirit uses. They were then able to gain entry into the Rover's sophisticated software and disable it. They are now currently re-programming it to use as part of terror operations. Instead of examing the soil and rocks with it's tool set, Syrian extremists(in cohorts with Osama Bin Laden) have now issued a new command for it to find the nearest biggest rock and detonate it's own power supply in a rover suicide operation. The rover will then reach martyrdom. It will all come out soon enough once Bush is re-elected.
At least the early shuttle missions, NASA developed their own OS. Don't know about current practice... B-bob might.
**BREAKING NEWS** Martinus Flagouski International Space Magazine Jan 22, 2004 Spirit gone Red? PASADENA,TEX. (NASA) - Mars rover ‘Spirit’ has asked Martian officials for Asylum on the red planet. At this time it is unclear what the robotic explorer’s motivation is for this politically charged act. Full Story: http://Marsroverseeksasylum33433i8yeahright//.org
I got a photoshop today of Marvin the Martian peering into our lens on the Red Planet. Maybe that explains it?
And the 44 black eyed virgin rovers will be waiting for the Spirit on the gates of paradise..glorious!
Well, those pics were boring, but I'm sure the research the rover was doing was valauable. The thing that really bugs me is that so much cash was dropped on this little guy and if he is lost to us for good, we just wasted a bunch of money.
