Posted: Wed, Nov 5, 2003, 7:23 AM ET (1223 GMT)
NASA announced Tuesday that engineers have found a workaround to a problem with an instrument on a Mars-bound rover allowing the instrument to work properly. NASA has announced in August that a problem with the Mossbauer spectrometer on the Spirit rover would prevent the instrument from working as planned. At the time, a drive system designed to vibrate a gamma-ray source within the instrument was not moving properly. However, engineers have found ways to vibrate the source at higher frequencies allowing it to work properly. The instrument is designed to identify iron-bearing minerals in Martian rocks and soil. Project officials caution that there is no guarantee that the instrument will work as planned on the Martian surface, given the rigors of landing. The project also reported that the Mossbauer spectrometer on Spirit's twin, Opportunity, has experienced the failure of its internal calibration channel, but the instrument as an independent external calibration system.

Related Links:

•  NASA/JPL press release