Contact lost with mars rover
Toksin
01-23-2004, 01:25 AM
from spaceflightnow.com
THURSDAY, JANUARY 22, 2004
1810 GMT (1:10 p.m. EST)
Here is project manager Pete Theisinger's briefing to reporters in the last hour, describing what has happened:
"At yesterday's press conference, we reported to you that we had had some communications issues with the rover, which we thought at the time was due to weather at the Canberra station and (Deep Space Network) configuration issues.
"We now know we have 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 12 hours or so.
"Let me kind of describe what the sequence of events have been.
"Yesterday afternoon, local solar time on Mars, actually about 1 o'clock, we sent to the vehicle at a command rate of 31.25 bits per second a sequence. We activated that sequence by command and we received a beacon response that indicated that we vehicle had received that sequence and that it was activating that sequence.
"After that time, a scheduled high-gain antenna pass at 2 o'clock in the afternoon, roughly, local solar time on Mars, did not occur.
"The 4:30 p.m. afternoon Mars Odyssey afternoon pass did not occur in the sense there was no indication by Odyssey that they received a UHF transmission.
"Last night, we had about a 1:30-2 a.m. Mars Global Surveyor pass and it was anomalous in the sense that Mars Global Surveyor believes it saw UHF transmission in its receiver telemetry but there was no data in the packets and the period of time that it believed it saw UHF telemetry was very, very short -- about two-and-a-half minutes compared to 12- or 13-minute overflight.
"The 4 a.m. Odyssey pass received no data, and this morning we did not have a direct-to-Earth link session -- we did not receive data on the normal direct-to-Earth session, nor did we receive data on what would have been a fault session at 11 a.m., which is where the spacecraft has entered fault mode, knows that, and chooses to communicate with us at a different time.
"The team has been meeting this morning and through the night working on a set of postulated fault scenarios. There is no one single fault that explains all the observables -- that we know of at the present time that we can conceive.
"We have been working on fault scenarios, we have been developing to-do lists. We have run yesterday's sequences through the test-bed (on Earth) with no anomalous results. So that is kind of our current state of knowledge."
At the end of the news conference, mission manager Jennifer Trosper came into the room and delivered an update to deputy project manager Richard Cook sitting at the briefing desk.
"If the spacecraft believes it's in a fault mode, its command rate should be 7.8 bits per second. We sent a beep today, this morning, about the time that we came down here to talk to you at 7.8. We sent a command that says if you get this send us a beep. And I'm told from Richard that Jennifer came down here to tell us that they think they got it," Theisinger said.
"That would tell us that the spacecraft thinks it's in the fault side of the tree some how for some reason. That would mean that we've got positive power, some elements of the software is working, once again the X-band system is working, the SSPA, the multi-space transponder, all that stuff is working so that would be more information -- good news. We need to confirm that. Data off the DSN sometimes needs double-checking. We'll let you know if that's for sure."
THURSDAY, JANUARY 22, 2004
1810 GMT (1:10 p.m. EST)
Here is project manager Pete Theisinger's briefing to reporters in the last hour, describing what has happened:
"At yesterday's press conference, we reported to you that we had had some communications issues with the rover, which we thought at the time was due to weather at the Canberra station and (Deep Space Network) configuration issues.
"We now know we have 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 12 hours or so.
"Let me kind of describe what the sequence of events have been.
"Yesterday afternoon, local solar time on Mars, actually about 1 o'clock, we sent to the vehicle at a command rate of 31.25 bits per second a sequence. We activated that sequence by command and we received a beacon response that indicated that we vehicle had received that sequence and that it was activating that sequence.
"After that time, a scheduled high-gain antenna pass at 2 o'clock in the afternoon, roughly, local solar time on Mars, did not occur.
"The 4:30 p.m. afternoon Mars Odyssey afternoon pass did not occur in the sense there was no indication by Odyssey that they received a UHF transmission.
"Last night, we had about a 1:30-2 a.m. Mars Global Surveyor pass and it was anomalous in the sense that Mars Global Surveyor believes it saw UHF transmission in its receiver telemetry but there was no data in the packets and the period of time that it believed it saw UHF telemetry was very, very short -- about two-and-a-half minutes compared to 12- or 13-minute overflight.
"The 4 a.m. Odyssey pass received no data, and this morning we did not have a direct-to-Earth link session -- we did not receive data on the normal direct-to-Earth session, nor did we receive data on what would have been a fault session at 11 a.m., which is where the spacecraft has entered fault mode, knows that, and chooses to communicate with us at a different time.
"The team has been meeting this morning and through the night working on a set of postulated fault scenarios. There is no one single fault that explains all the observables -- that we know of at the present time that we can conceive.
"We have been working on fault scenarios, we have been developing to-do lists. We have run yesterday's sequences through the test-bed (on Earth) with no anomalous results. So that is kind of our current state of knowledge."
At the end of the news conference, mission manager Jennifer Trosper came into the room and delivered an update to deputy project manager Richard Cook sitting at the briefing desk.
"If the spacecraft believes it's in a fault mode, its command rate should be 7.8 bits per second. We sent a beep today, this morning, about the time that we came down here to talk to you at 7.8. We sent a command that says if you get this send us a beep. And I'm told from Richard that Jennifer came down here to tell us that they think they got it," Theisinger said.
"That would tell us that the spacecraft thinks it's in the fault side of the tree some how for some reason. That would mean that we've got positive power, some elements of the software is working, once again the X-band system is working, the SSPA, the multi-space transponder, all that stuff is working so that would be more information -- good news. We need to confirm that. Data off the DSN sometimes needs double-checking. We'll let you know if that's for sure."
Toksin
01-23-2004, 01:28 AM
1750 GMT (12:50 p.m. EST)
After a day of troubleshooting, engineers have not yet been able to restore communications with the Spirit rover, which stopped beaming back science and engineering data Wednesday. Project manager Pete Theisinger at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., described the situation as "a very serious anomaly," but said it was too soon to say what might be causing the problem, whether it might be potentially fatal or whether the spacecraft can be restored to normal operation. Read our full story.
1703 GMT (12:03 p.m. EST)
Project manager Pete Theisinger says there has been a "very serious anomaly" on the rover.
No data has been received from the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit during several scheduled sessions over the past day, NASA says. Mars Global Surveyor received only a tone from the rover overnight but no telemetry.
Mission Control has launched recovery efforts to reestablish contact with the rover at Gusev Crater.
Details to follow!
1650 GMT (11:50 a.m. EST)
A news conference is about to begin at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory on the status of Spirit and the loss of communications with the rover. We will update this page as soon as official information is available.
0640 GMT (1:40 a.m. EST)
The Mars Spirit rover stopped beaming scientific data to flight controllers Wednesday following thunderstorms at an Australian ground station that may have interfered with the daily uplink of critical computer commands. Read our full story.
posting in bits and pieces because AF has some issue with it being one big post...
After a day of troubleshooting, engineers have not yet been able to restore communications with the Spirit rover, which stopped beaming back science and engineering data Wednesday. Project manager Pete Theisinger at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., described the situation as "a very serious anomaly," but said it was too soon to say what might be causing the problem, whether it might be potentially fatal or whether the spacecraft can be restored to normal operation. Read our full story.
1703 GMT (12:03 p.m. EST)
Project manager Pete Theisinger says there has been a "very serious anomaly" on the rover.
No data has been received from the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit during several scheduled sessions over the past day, NASA says. Mars Global Surveyor received only a tone from the rover overnight but no telemetry.
Mission Control has launched recovery efforts to reestablish contact with the rover at Gusev Crater.
Details to follow!
1650 GMT (11:50 a.m. EST)
A news conference is about to begin at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory on the status of Spirit and the loss of communications with the rover. We will update this page as soon as official information is available.
0640 GMT (1:40 a.m. EST)
The Mars Spirit rover stopped beaming scientific data to flight controllers Wednesday following thunderstorms at an Australian ground station that may have interfered with the daily uplink of critical computer commands. Read our full story.
posting in bits and pieces because AF has some issue with it being one big post...
Toksin
01-23-2004, 01:29 AM
Controllers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory believe the Mars rover Spirit has placed itself into "safe-mode" after experiencing some sort of problem, and officials remain hopeful that engineers can coax the craft back into operation.
http://ck.paradise.net.nz/pics/spirit-safe.gif
Note, I did not make the pic, I found it on another forum.
http://ck.paradise.net.nz/pics/spirit-safe.gif
Note, I did not make the pic, I found it on another forum.
HogieGT-R
01-23-2004, 01:36 AM
lmao at that pic dave:lol:
but i think that it's quite dissapointing, i mean that'd definately put a rain on my parade....millions of dollars spent on R&D and then problems happen....man i was hopin to see what was goin on mars also...i mean if this was a success, imagine what else we could have done...i mean manned missions to mars as well...one could only dream of what is ahead i was hoping that the probe would have worked longer....it kind of reminds me of when they sent out The Pathfinder.....it's like one of those one time use cameras.....:disappoin
but i think that it's quite dissapointing, i mean that'd definately put a rain on my parade....millions of dollars spent on R&D and then problems happen....man i was hopin to see what was goin on mars also...i mean if this was a success, imagine what else we could have done...i mean manned missions to mars as well...one could only dream of what is ahead i was hoping that the probe would have worked longer....it kind of reminds me of when they sent out The Pathfinder.....it's like one of those one time use cameras.....:disappoin
jon@af
01-23-2004, 01:51 AM
lmao at that pic dave:lol:
but i think that it's quite dissapointing, i mean that'd definately put a rain on my parade....millions of dollars spent on R&D and then problems happen....man i was hopin to see what was goin on mars also...i mean if this was a success, imagine what else we could have done...i mean manned missions to mars as well...one could only dream of what is ahead i was hoping that the probe would have worked longer....it kind of reminds me of when they sent out The Pathfinder.....it's like one of those one time use cameras.....:disappoin
seems like such a waste doesnt it? All that money sitting on a planet that none of us will ever see and my state not gettting enough funding to hand out to schools which may cost my school ALL it's athletics/extracurriculars next year.
but i think that it's quite dissapointing, i mean that'd definately put a rain on my parade....millions of dollars spent on R&D and then problems happen....man i was hopin to see what was goin on mars also...i mean if this was a success, imagine what else we could have done...i mean manned missions to mars as well...one could only dream of what is ahead i was hoping that the probe would have worked longer....it kind of reminds me of when they sent out The Pathfinder.....it's like one of those one time use cameras.....:disappoin
seems like such a waste doesnt it? All that money sitting on a planet that none of us will ever see and my state not gettting enough funding to hand out to schools which may cost my school ALL it's athletics/extracurriculars next year.
HogieGT-R
01-23-2004, 02:01 AM
seems like such a waste doesnt it? All that money sitting on a planet that none of us will ever see and my state not gettting enough funding to hand out to schools which may cost my school ALL it's athletics/extracurriculars next year.
Thank You finally someone sees what's going on over here!
Jon....it already happened to my town...that's why i'm glad that i graduated last year when there was still a decent high school...:disappoin
Thank You finally someone sees what's going on over here!
Jon....it already happened to my town...that's why i'm glad that i graduated last year when there was still a decent high school...:disappoin
taranaki
01-23-2004, 02:13 AM
Point1.Shoulda gone with Duracells.
Point2.Have they tried squeezing the remote a bit harder?
Point 3.Does the US govt have 'roadside assistance' for this vehicle?
Seriously,if I had spent that much money,I would have expected a better return.How can anyone justify spending so much on a machine that can survive a trip to Mars,but craps out when someone tries to get it to follow instructions?
Point2.Have they tried squeezing the remote a bit harder?
Point 3.Does the US govt have 'roadside assistance' for this vehicle?
Seriously,if I had spent that much money,I would have expected a better return.How can anyone justify spending so much on a machine that can survive a trip to Mars,but craps out when someone tries to get it to follow instructions?
Toksin
01-23-2004, 02:19 AM
No comments regarding the gender of the person behind the joystick...
*runs*
*runs*
Neutrino
01-23-2004, 03:02 AM
http://ck.paradise.net.nz/pics/spirit-safe.gif
Note, I did not make the pic, I found it on another forum.
OMG that pic made my day :rofl:
Note, I did not make the pic, I found it on another forum.
OMG that pic made my day :rofl:
DGB454
01-23-2004, 05:49 AM
Too bad if they can't get back in contact with it again. So where is that lost Beagle at? Now that was a huge waste of money.
Moppie
01-23-2004, 07:04 AM
Sounds like the Manager at the Mc Ds had it towed for blocking up the drive through.
Either that or its eloped with the Beagle!
Either that or its eloped with the Beagle!
carrrnuttt
01-23-2004, 09:32 AM
Sounds like the Manager at the Mc Ds had it towed for blocking up the drive through.
http://www.rc.i4m.org/mars.jpg
I personally think that somebody has tampered with it:
http://www.rc.i4m.org/MarsLanding.jpg
http://www.rc.i4m.org/mars.jpg
I personally think that somebody has tampered with it:
http://www.rc.i4m.org/MarsLanding.jpg
Fearless Racer
01-23-2004, 10:00 AM
http://www.rc.i4m.org/mars.jpg
I personally think that somebody has tampered with it:
http://www.rc.i4m.org/MarsLanding.jpg
:rofl:
It seems like everything we send to Mars breaks down. I was hoping that we would learn more about the giant red ball, but everything breaks down within days of exploring the surface! :banghead:
Better idea: Why not just terra-form the moon first before going to Mars? It's easier that way, plus by the time we're done with that; then we can focus on Mars(Bush is thinking too far ahead to send us to Mars without sending us to the moon).
I personally think that somebody has tampered with it:
http://www.rc.i4m.org/MarsLanding.jpg
:rofl:
It seems like everything we send to Mars breaks down. I was hoping that we would learn more about the giant red ball, but everything breaks down within days of exploring the surface! :banghead:
Better idea: Why not just terra-form the moon first before going to Mars? It's easier that way, plus by the time we're done with that; then we can focus on Mars(Bush is thinking too far ahead to send us to Mars without sending us to the moon).
Steel
01-23-2004, 10:25 AM
Gee.. another NASA waste of money for what? pictures of a desert. Ohh. Ahh. Fuck me sideways, i'm sick of this useless crap. We should be sending PEOPLE to the MOON again, and start learning how to survive outside of earth!
*edit* fearless: how do you plan on terraforming the moon if it has no atmosphere?
*edit* fearless: how do you plan on terraforming the moon if it has no atmosphere?
Cl0ak
01-23-2004, 10:29 AM
I heard on the news that they had sent up a 2nd one that is supposed to land this weekend.
slave
01-23-2004, 10:34 AM
Its because it doesnt have a B20 isnt it?! Unreliable nasa shite!!!
mycivic
01-23-2004, 10:39 AM
I personally think that somebody has tampered with it:
http://www.rc.i4m.org/MarsLanding.jpg
I like this one. LOL! I kinda find it funny. :rofl: :lol:
http://www.rc.i4m.org/MarsLanding.jpg
I like this one. LOL! I kinda find it funny. :rofl: :lol:
Toksin
01-23-2004, 05:37 PM
Carrnuttt...ROFL
I saw a good quote on another forum-
More than likely some British lander, 2 weeks late, completely owned the rover on entering the atmosphere as a flaming hunk of space junk.
That cracked me up..
I saw a good quote on another forum-
More than likely some British lander, 2 weeks late, completely owned the rover on entering the atmosphere as a flaming hunk of space junk.
That cracked me up..
tonioseven
01-23-2004, 05:53 PM
It was carjacked.
YogsVR4
01-23-2004, 05:57 PM
The repair shop was just messing with us. Its up and running again.
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