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Mars Exploration Rover Mission Status - January 23, 2004

Guy Webster (818) 354-5011 Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

Donald Savage (202) 358-1547 NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C.

News Release: 2004-29 January 23, 2004

Mars Exploration Rover Mission Status

NASA's Spirit rover communicated with Earth in a signal detected by NASA's Deep Space Network antenna complex near Madrid, Spain, at 12:34 Universal Time (4:34 a.m. PST) this morning.

The transmissions came during a communication window about 90 minutes after Spirit woke up for the morning on Mars. The signal lasted for 10 minutes at a data rate of 10 bits per second.

Mission controllers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., plan to send commands to Spirit seeking additional data from the spacecraft during the subsequent few hours.

JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, manages the Mars Exploration Rover project for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. Additional information about the project is available from JPL at

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from Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., at

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MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE JET PROPULSION LABORATORY CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION PASADENA, CALIF. 91109. TELEPHONE (818) 354-5011

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Guy Webster (818) 354-5011 Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

Donald Savage (202) 358-1547 NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C.

News Release: 2004-30 January 23, 2004, 6:30 am PST

Updated Mars Exploration Rover Mission Status

The flight team for NASA's Spirit received data from the rover in a communication session that began at 13:26 Universal Time (5:26 a.m. PST) and lasted 20 minutes at a data rate of 120 bits per second.

"The spacecraft sent limted data in a proper response to a ground command, and we're planning for commanding further communication sessions later today," said Mars Exploration Rover Project Manager Pete Theisinger at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

The flight team at JPL had sent a command to Spirit at 13:02 Universal Time (5:02 PST) via the NASA Deep Space Network antenna complex near Madrid, Spain, telling Spirit to begin transmitting.

Meanwhile, the other Mars Exploration Rover, Opportunity is on course to land halfway around Mars from Spirit, in a region called Meridiani Planum, on Jan. 25 (Universal Time and EST; Jan. 24 at 9:05 p.m. PST).

JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, manages the Mars Exploration Rover project for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. Additional information about the project is available from JPL at

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and from Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., at

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Reply to
Ron
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Yahoooooo!!!!!!!

Let's hope for the best in the next round of communications.

Reply to
Alan Kilian

Here's hoping. But the news release was carefully worded, it sounds like an attempt by NASA to put the best face on a bad situation. A rover that just sits there and is only able to say "Hi, I'm here" is hardly useful for anything.

Rick

Reply to
Rick

Well, here is hoping. Although it may or may not be bad, a rover that is saying "hi, I am here" is a lot better than one that is saying: " ".

Reply to
jbeck

Spirit transmitted for 20 minutes at 120 bps, or a dump of 17 to 18 kilobytes.

-- Michael Anthony

Reply to
Michael Anthony

I read somewhere that it's continually re-booting itself; 60 (? 40) time so far.

If anyone can fix it these men and women can.

Reply to
RandyW

Oh dear God, I hope they didn't try applying Service Pack 4.. :)

Rick

Reply to
Rick

I wonder when they'll actually send a lander to someplace that is interesting? Gosh, I have to choose between sending a lander 240million miles to land in a desert where I'm pretty sure nothing is living OR I can send it to one of the polar icecaps that advance and retreat and where unusual activities may exist... Hmm, yup, lets be safe and send it to the desert.

Of course I haven't a clue why they continue to send robots to the least interesting parts of Mars, just a frustrated watcher.

IMO, DLC

Reply to
Dennis Clark

Dennis,

There are a number of factors that influence the landing site (in addition to where the best science data can be obtained) such as: the ruggedness of the terrain (and the corresponding survivability chance of the lander and rover), the amount and hours of sunlight, the amount and hours of view of the Earth for communications, the geometry of over flying orbiters for relay communications, the extremes of temperature during days and nights, etc. A lot of it is comes down to budget constraints. With enough money, most any of the constraints can be overcome but sadly that is not reality. A lot of effort goes into site selection and it is a constant battle between the science team and the engineering team but they usually make a reasonable compromise. There is still a lot of valuable data to be gained from almost any location on an alien world but as we gain experience, we will set out on bolder challenges. Of course we did try an ambitious polar lander in 1999 but it was lost upon arrival at Mars. Hopefully we will again.

Jerry

--

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-- Jerry Petrey

-- Senior Principal Systems Engineer - Navigation (GPS/INS), Guidance, & Control

-- Raytheon Missile Systems - Member Team Ada & Team Forth

-- NOTE: please remove in email address to reply

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Reply to
Jerry Petrey

I still think it is Martians causing our data loss. *|;-) (wink) Jo

Reply to
Jo Schaper

I don't know what they normally expect, but I would think for systems data and status that could be quit a bit of information. Obviously, for pictures, I would think this would be high insufficient.

Reply to
jbeck

Exactly. The last press release was very carefully worded and didn't give any details about what "data" was received. I suspect it was little more than an "I'm alive" or maybe "here's where I am".

Rick

Reply to
Rick

You obviously haven't been watching very closely at all. It's already been tried. Do you not recall the Mars Polar Lander? Where do you think it went? And by the way, every inch of mars is a desert. Even the poles.

Reply to
Chosp

Perhaps results of self diagnostics as well?

Reply to
jbeck

Or...

"There is a darn little beagle hanging on my back, poking my innards and trying to steal my radio equipment !"

Reply to
Pierre-Normand Houle

We never should have sent Rover to play with the Beagle. Here, boy! Fetch!

Reply to
Jo Schaper

Geologically, the locations of the MERs *are* some of the most interesting places on the planet, at least within the area that those particular rovers can actually operate in (there are major engineering constraints). In fact, landing in Gusev Crater was considered a little daring, but it was eventually deemed worth the risk. The Meridiani Planum site was a firm choice almost from the start, because the hematite deposits would be a very high geological priority even if the site *wasn't* also quite smooth and flat.

Don't confuse public-relations appeal with scientific interest.

Hint: almost all of Mars is a desert.

Other hint: these are geology missions. They have no biology instruments and their science objectives are geological.

Tried in 1999 with MPL, unsuccessfully. The Phoenix lander in 2007 will go to a "high-latitude" site, details not yet selected. The engineering difficulties are major, but so is the level of interest.

Reply to
Henry Spencer

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