Weather slows down Spirit activities
Posted: Thu, Jan 22, 2004, 11:04 AM ET (1604 GMT)
A terrestrial thunderstorm apparently disrupted communications between flight controllers and NASA's Mars rover Spirit on Wednesday, preventing the spacecraft from carrying out planned scientific work. The day's commands were transmitted to the rover from the Deep Space Network facility near Canberra, Australia, during a thunderstorm. While the rover acknowledged receiving the commands, it did not carry them out nor did it transmit data back to Earth. Controllers believe that the storm interfered with the transmission of the commands enough that they were too weak to be properly received and interpreted by the rover. The spacecraft instead carried out a "master sequence" of commands that covers rover housekeeping issues but no scientific work. No reason was given why the rover did not reestablish communications with Earth last yesterday, although project officials said that they experienced similar glitches with the Mars Pathfinder mission in 1997 that were remedied within a day or so.
A terrestrial thunderstorm apparently disrupted communications between flight controllers and NASA's Mars rover Spirit on Wednesday, preventing the spacecraft from carrying out planned scientific work. The day's commands were transmitted to the rover from the Deep Space Network facility near Canberra, Australia, during a thunderstorm. While the rover acknowledged receiving the commands, it did not carry them out nor did it transmit data back to Earth. Controllers believe that the storm interfered with the transmission of the commands enough that they were too weak to be properly received and interpreted by the rover. The spacecraft instead carried out a "master sequence" of commands that covers rover housekeeping issues but no scientific work. No reason was given why the rover did not reestablish communications with Earth last yesterday, although project officials said that they experienced similar glitches with the Mars Pathfinder mission in 1997 that were remedied within a day or so.
Related Links:
| <<previous article | next article>> |
|
news in brief
|
|
Blue Origin announces new upper stage and engine for New Glenn
Posted: Sat, Nov 7 12:07 PM ET (1707 GMT) |
|
news links
|
|
Monday, November 9
NASA Updates Moon Base Plan Spanning Rover to Rides
Aviation Week — 4:49 am ET (0949 GMT) Korea to spur private launchers and LEO network in SpaceX-style push
Chosun Ilbo — 4:44 am ET (0944 GMT) As SpaceX gets cheaper, are India’s rockets taking different flight paths?
livemint — 4:44 am ET (0944 GMT) SpaceX Falcon 9 launch planned for Monday evening out of Vandenberg SFB
KSBY-TV San Luis Obispo, CA — 4:43 am ET (0943 GMT) Will China’s slow and steady moon landing plan be a safer bet than the US’?
South China Morning Post — 4:43 am ET (0943 GMT) |
