spacetoday.net: Hope fading for restoring contact with Spirit

Posted: Wed, Mar 30, 2011, 7:25 AM ET (1125 GMT)
Mars Exploration Rover (NASA/JPL)

A year after last making contact with the Mars rover Spirit, project officials said hope for restoring contact with the spacecraft is fading. The rover, which landed on Mars on January 2004 for what was originally planned to be a 90-day mission, got stuck in a patch of sandy soil in April 2009 and went into hibernation last March to conserve power during the winter. However, the spacecraft did not resume communications even after the recent summer solstice, suggesting to project officials that cold temperatures the previous winter may have damaged spacecraft systems, preventing it from resuming operations. NASA plans to make a concerted effort to restore contact with Spirit for about another month before focusing its attention on the rover's twin, Opportunity, which continues to operate normally elsewhere on the planet.