Potential problem as Spirit rover stops transmitting data

>> YOUR LINK HERE: ___ http://youtube.com/watch?v=honZW_k89x0

(22 Jan 2004) • • 22 January 2004 • 1. Animation of rover driving off landing craft platform • 2. Close shot animation view of rover camera rotating • 3. Mid shot animation of rover moving across Martian surface • 4. Wide shot animation view of Martian surface as seen from rover • 5. Wide shot of presser • 6. SOUNDBITE: (English) Pete Theisinger, Project Manager: • We now know that we've had a very serious anomaly on the vehicle and our ability to determine exactly what has happened has been limited by our inability to receive telemetry from the vehicle, basically the last twelve hours or so. • 7. Wide shot of presser • 8. SOUNDBITE: (English) Richard Cook, Deputy Project Manager: • It was not what we expected during that MGS pass and that we saw a signal, meaning that the radio, the lander's radio was... the rover's radio was on, but that it... there was not data present. The rover wasn't sending data. It was only, for lack of a better word, sending zeros and ones, sort of a random pattern of zeros and ones. • • 21 January 2004 • 9. Still photo of the Mars lander • 10. Wide pan of still photo of Mars • • STORYLINE: • • NASA's Spirit rover stopped transmitting data from the surface of Mars for more than 24 hours, mission members said on Thursday, calling it an extremely serious anomaly. • • NASA last heard from Spirit early on Thursday when it sent a radio transmission but failed to return any data. • • Since Wednesday, its 18th day on the planet, the spacecraft has transmitted just random, meaningless radio noise - and only then sporadically, scientists said. • • Initially, the scientists said they believed weather problems on Earth caused the glitch. They now believe the rover was • experiencing hardware or software problems. • • Spirit is one half of a 820 (m) million US dollar mission. • • Its twin, Opportunity, is scheduled to land on Mars on Saturday. • • NASA last heard from Spirit as it prepared to continue its work examining its first rock, just a few yards from its lander. • • Since then, Spirit has transmitted just a few beeps to Earth in response to attempts to communicate with it. • • It has also skipped several scheduled communications opportunities, either directly with Earth or by way of two NASA satellites in orbit around Mars. • • Engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory worked to pinpoint the yet-unknown problem. • • Preliminary indications from the spacecraft suggest its radio is working and it continues to generate power from the sun with its • solar panels. • • It was unclear if the problem was with the rover's software or hardware, Theisinger said. • • NASA can fix software from Earth, beaming fixes across more than 100 (m) million miles of space. • • If the problem lies with the rover's hardware, the situation would be far more grave, Theisinger said. • • The six-wheeled robot had been scheduled on Thursday to grind away a tiny area of the weathered face of a sharply angled rock dubbed Adirondack. • • Examination of the rock beneath could offer clues to Mars' geologic past. Spirit has since remained immobile, Cook said. • • On Wednesday, NASA scientists said a thunderstorm near a Deep Space Network radio antenna in Canberra, Australia disrupted controllers' efforts to initiate the drilling. • • It has since discounted the weather as the source of the communications problem. • • Until Wednesday, Spirit had functioned nearly flawlessly. • • Since landing it has snapped thousands of pictures of Mars, including microscopic images of both the martian soil and Adirondack, its first rock target. • • Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork • Twitter: / ap_archive • Facebook: / aparchives • Instagram: / apnews • • • You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...

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