PASADENA, Calif. (January 22, 2004) -- Rover Spirit has failed to return data from the surface of Mars for more than 24 hours.
Speaking at a press briefing at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory today, Pete Theisinger, rover project manager, called the failure to transmit data "a serious problem … an extremely serious anomaly."
Spirit, he said, has sent back signals indicating that its radio is on, but the vehicle's computer is not passing on information.
According to JPL, ground controllers were able to send commands to the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit early Wednesday and received a simple signal acknowledging that the rover heard them, but they did not receive expected scientific and engineering data during scheduled communication passes during the rest of that Martian day.
Theisinger said the rover attempted to communicate with the Mars Global Surveyor orbiter at about 8:30 p.m. Pacific time last night but Spirit sent back sporadic, meaningless data. Initially, mission scientists believed weather problems on Earth caused the communications failure. They now believe the rover is experiencing hardware or software problems. NASA found ways to fix similar problems with the Mars Pathfinder rover in 1997.
Spirit completes 19 days on Mars today. Its twin rover, Opportunity, is due to land on Mars at 12:05 a.m. Eastern time on Sunday, Jan. 25.
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