Mars Exploration News  
Mars Rover Team Diagnosing Unexpected Behavior

Despite the rover's unexplained behavior, Mars Exploration Rovers' Project Manager John Callas of JPL said Wednesday, "Right now, Spirit is under normal sequence control, reporting good health and responsive to commands from the ground."
by Staff Writers
Pasadena CA (JPL) Jan 29, 2009
The team operating NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit plans diagnostic tests this week after Spirit did not report some of its weekend activities, including a request to determine its orientation after an incomplete drive.

On Sunday, during the 1,800th Martian day, or sol, of what was initially planned as a 90-sol mission on Mars, information radioed from Spirit indicated the rover had received its driving commands for the day but had not moved.

That can happen for many reasons, including the rover properly sensing that it is not ready to drive.

However, other behavior on Sol 1800 was even more unusual: Spirit apparently did not record the day's main activities into the non-volatile memory, the part of its memory that persists even when power is off.

On Monday, Spirit's controllers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., chose to command the rover on Tuesday, Sol 1802, to find the sun with its camera in order to precisely determine its orientation.

Not knowing its orientation could have been one possible explanation for Spirit not doing its weekend drive. Early Tuesday, Spirit reported that it had followed the commands, and in fact had located the sun, but not in its expected location.

"We don't have a good explanation yet for the way Spirit has been acting for the past few days," said JPL's Sharon Laubach, chief of the team that writes and checks commands for the rovers. "Our next steps will be diagnostic activities."

Among other possible causes, the team is considering a hypothesis of transitory effects from cosmic rays hitting electronics. On Tuesday, Spirit apparently used its non-volatile memory properly.

Despite the rover's unexplained behavior, Mars Exploration Rovers' Project Manager John Callas of JPL said Wednesday, "Right now, Spirit is under normal sequence control, reporting good health and responsive to commands from the ground."

Share This Article With Planet Earth
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit
YahooMyWebYahooMyWeb GoogleGoogle FacebookFacebook



Related Links
Mars Rovers at JPL
Mars Rovers at Cornell
Mars News and Information at MarsDaily.com
Mars News and Information at MarsDaily.com
Lunar Dreams and more



Memory Foam Mattress Review
Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily
XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News


NASA-Derived Technology Captures Unique Inaugural Image
Washington DC (SPX) Jan 29, 2009
NASA spinoff technology from the Mars exploration rovers was used to capture a unique panoramic image of President Obama's inaugural address at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 20.









  • Nuclear Power In Space - Part 2
  • Nuclear Power In Space
  • Outside View: Nuclear future in space

  • NASA Goddard To Investigate The Stormy Moon
  • Moon Impactor Probe Silenced Sceptics
  • USRA Selects Awardees For LCROSS Observation Campaign
  • Exploring The Eighth Continent

  • Ashes of "Star Trek" creator and wife rocketing to deep space
  • Key Element Of NASA Orion CEV Capsule Test Program
  • CU-Boulder And SpaceDev Launch Center For Space Entrepreneurship
  • Global Trajectory Optimisation Competition

  • New Horizon Cruising For Three Years On Route To Pluto
  • NASA Honors MSU Pluto Model For Teachers
  • Flight Team Enjoys Some Mid-Cruise Time During Pluto Bound Mission
  • New Horizons Earns A Holiday

  • Underwater Clues To Alien Life
  • Surviving Jovian Doses Of Radiation
  • Hubble Catches Jupiter's Largest Moon Going To The Dark Side
  • Unmasking Europa

  • Venus Comes To Life At Wavelengths Invisible To Human Eyes
  • Venus Express Searching For Life On Earth
  • How Windy Is It On Venus
  • Measuring The Winds Of Venus

  • Saturn's Crazy Christmas Tilt
  • Titan's Volcanoes Give NASA Spacecraft Chilly Reception
  • Saturn's Dynamic Moon Enceladus Shows More Signs Of Activity
  • An Ocean On Enceladus

  • Eutelsat Statement On The W2M Satellite
  • SBIRS Payload Operationally Accepted
  • Japan's Fujitsu scraps HDD head business
  • IBM to cut more than 2,800 jobs: union

  • The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2007 - SpaceDaily.AFP and UPI Wire Stories are copyright Agence France-Presse and United Press International. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by SpaceDaily on any Web page published or hosted by SpaceDaily. Privacy Statement