Mars Global Surveyor: Disoriented

From JPL:

Engineers are striving to restore full communications with NASA's Mars Global Surveyor on the 10th anniversary of the spacecraft's Nov. 7, 1996, launch.

10 years is awesome!
But, it looks like engineers are having a tough time waking up this robot.
Just after some commands were sent to reposition the solar arrays, the spacecraft became non-responsive.

Some of the automatic sequences that occur after an error, could produce this scenario.
So they aren't especially worried..YET..

WAKE UP MGS!

yeah, a link would be nice right?
MGS troubles

[edit on 8-11-2006 by spacedoubt]

No respnoses!
Just like Mars Global Surveyor.


I thought I'd update this anyway..

It's been a few days, so this is getting a little more serious to JPL.
They are even considering taking photos of the Satellite, using one of the others, that
are orbiting Mars at this time.

There is an update here:
MGS phone home

i'm surprised it's lasted this long....it has long outlived its intended life. chalk one up for nasa.

Thanks for the bump, spacedoubt.

Missed it the first time around.

I usually visit Space , more regularly, but have been sidetracked lately by the ATS game.

It's good to hear there is still hope for MGS, and that MRO is there to lend an 'eye'.

I guess I need to go check out the latest on Spirit and Opportunity , as well.

Oh yea, space' ,

forgot to ask, did you have any luck with your camera , during the Orionids?

And - I'll 'see' yer bump, and raise you two.

Leonids (Nov 18),
Geminids (Dec 10-16),
Ursids (Dec 22

Jbird.

No luck with the photos.
Point camera this way, meteor over THAT way.LOL


I hope they get MGS back up and running.
But, like Snafu said..10 years is an amazing run. Big thumbs up, no matter what the outcome.

I just read about this on Space.com.

I hope they can get it back in working operation, still it's
amazing how long it's work after it's expected life.


You know, alot of Space probes seem to outlive there
projected lifespan.

[edit on 11/10/2006 by iori_komei]

It's not looking good for MGS.
Looks like they are going to try to make it talk to the rovers as another test.

news.yahoo.com...

The Global Surveyor, which lost contact with Earth in November, was the oldest of six active spacecraft on or circling Mars. NASA has made several unsuccessful attempts to locate the missing probe.

"We're declaring it most likely dead," McCuistion said. "I doubt we will see it again."

They're saying its dead.



PhysOrg

Just thought I'd add this new information, as it seemed like a better
idea than making a whole thread about it.


It seems that the MGS's demise was caused by a human error from
it's last software update

Human error triggered a cascade of events that caused the battery to fail on the Mars Global Surveyor last year, according to a preliminary report released Friday.

An internal NASA board determined that power loss likely doomed the spacecraft after a decade of meticulously mapping the Red Planet.
But the problems actually began in 2005 when a routine technical update to onboard computers caused inconsistencies in the spacecraft's memory. The board concluded that engineers didn't catch the mistakes because the existing procedures to do so were inadequate.

Source