No, it's not working completely yet, but when it has a problem it's supposed to go into sleep mode. The fact that it's out of sleep mode would mean that it's finished it's diagnostic and is transmitting that info to NASA.

Any ideas what when wrong? Was this an expected event re: the circumstances?

Either way the public demands a successful Mars mission after so many failures in the past.

NASA's not saying yet, but the communication lasted for 20 minutes, and they intend to send more commands to it to communicate later today. They probably don't have a clear idea what went wrong yet, as the signal was "limited":

"The spacecraft sent limited data in a proper response to a ground command, and we're planning for commanding further communication sessions later today," said Mars Exploration Rover Project Manager Pete Theisinger at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

Originally posted by junglejake
Well, with the new news that Spirit is communicating again with earth, I'm gonna have to say nope. No conspiracy here.

~*~

?are you SURE, the signals are of SpiritRover?

i'm thinking along the lines of-> mrmulder post#343351...

'they' went great lengths to inform the public,
(code for Damage Control) prior to the 'anomaly'
and to 'openly' address the data transmissions,
picture hues, etc.
....but, bumpin elbows & jack-jawin with project
engineers-executives....could just mean that
'we' (public citizenry) are being c0n-Spiricized
by a higher class of 'in-the-knowers' !!

*there is now a 2 day window for make-believe....
as if, you or I could ever intercept the data stream & then process it..

Originally posted by THENEO
Any ideas what when wrong? Was this an expected event re: the circumstances?

Patience is the key. Let me stress again that they are trying to communicate with a small object MILLIONS OF MILES AWAY ON AN ALIEN PLANET.

Either way the public demands a successful Mars mission after so many failures in the past.

Again as I said earlier, once YOU yourself puts a small object into space, get it to land safely on an alien planet, then get it to run perfectly in unpredictable and alien conditions, then you are in a postion to "demand" something. Up until then you ain't in a position to demand nothing, so why don't you cut these guys a break.

[Edited on 23-1-2004 by John Nada]

I believe the whole Mars mission is a coverup for something else. The Yellowstone supercaldera and the end of the world as we know it perhaps..........................

Blessings,
Mikromarius

It's interesting that it's not just NASA's problem. The EU lost the Beagle2 lander and I seem to remember something about a Japanese lander being lost a few years ago. What I would like to know is why didn't the Soujourner Rover or the Viking Robots have these problems, and why haven't we sent a decient photography satalite (something with like 1/2 meter resolution like the USGS uses) up there to have a look? It really seems like there is something going on here. The basic tech on this rover was not all that different from the sucessful Soujourner, airbag landing, basic craft layout, propulsion system, it's all tech that has worked before. Why not now? Interestingly, this craft did not fail on landing like the polar mission and the Beagle did, instead they now believe it to be a hardware issue with hardware that was seeming to work perfectly on Tuesday.
It's all very very odd.

~Urban

urbanmaster,

that is exactly my point also guy,
why was viking so successful years before with almost not a hitch of a problem with older technology.

Far as my memory serves me, viking was doing a lot of the same stuff that recent missions are trying to do also.

We will see what happens in the next few days as NASA says it 'repair' the craft and hopefully images will be sent from the mobile robot.

They were taking samples of Martian microbes. They'll tell the public that they were discovered if and when they are found to be of no use in biological warfare. Otherwise, they'll keep it to themselves and have a monopoly on the Martian virus.

The egg heads at JPL, have just come up with the answer to the software glitch, that keeps spirit's reboot sequence looping! Mr Gates is presently riding a Pronton booster to the red planet, with a copy of "WINDOWS FOR DUMMIES"

Strog,

now that is a likely scenario!

Spirit news update right now on NASA-TV. I'll type as they announce it.
.
.
.
Spirit is responding more today!
.
.
Flash memory corruption caused the problem.
.
.
Is now in serious condition rather than critical.
.
.
They have succesfully switched operating modes, and reset the rover.
.
.
It succesfully shut down for the first time in 4 days.
.
.
Rover is now stable! They will be booting in cripple mode and reprogramming it every day.
.
Lots of work to do to avoid reocurrence.

3 weeks from driving again.

Thank god, it's looking more hopeful.


I hope the second one has good fortune later. I'm always nervous with excitement when these things happen.


[Edited on 24-1-2004 by Zzub]

When do we get pictures again???

They've had enough time to investigate their findings Now they need to go back to showing us the good but not as interesting stuff.

They think they are probably 3 weeks away from being able to roll again. They've got to rebuild the programming in the rover.

Originally posted by Zzub
Spirit news update right now on NASA-TV. I'll type as they announce it.
.
.
.
Spirit is responding more today!
.
.
Flash memory corruption caused the problem.
.
.
Is now in serious condition rather than critical.
.
.
They have succesfully switched operating modes, and reset the rover.
.
.
It succesfully shut down for the first time in 4 days.
.
.
Rover is now stable! They will be booting in cripple mode and reprogramming it every day.
.
Lots of work to do to avoid reocurrence.

3 weeks from driving again.

Thank god, it's looking more hopeful.


I hope the second one has good fortune later. I'm always nervous with excitement when these things happen.


[Edited on 24-1-2004 by Zzub]

Hopefully that is end of subject.

Lies, Lies, Lies, I tell you!!!

just kidding I'm just having fun

seriously, so does that mean, that they will have images before they roll again....I mean they got pictures before they started moving. I just want pics..