Spirit communication lost!

Folks,

I just received a news flash from the Space Flight Now web site
(run by Astronomy Now Magazine) and it seems to be official that
communication HAS been lost.

We have the proposed landing of Opportunity on the weekend and,
hopefully, Spirit will be back in action by then so that we can enjoy
transmissions from both rovers.

Anthony.

Anthony Ayiomamitis wrote:
Folks,

I just received a news flash from the Space Flight Now web site
(run by Astronomy Now Magazine) and it seems to be official that
communication HAS been lost.

It's not that bad yet. In fact, they do have two way communication.
It's just not working properly. There is a serious problem, apparently
in the computer. But if it is a software problem (which is not
unprecedented) then there is a good chance for recovery; time to reboot.
If it is hardware that is another matter, but even then there are
possible solutions.

If I were you I'd find another news source less likely to indulge in
hyperbole, or did you add that yourself...

--
Greg Crinklaw
Astronomical Software Developer
Cloudcroft, New Mexico, USA (33N, 106W, 2700m)

SkyTools Software for the Observer:
http://www.skyhound.com/cs.html

Skyhound Observing Pages:
http://www.skyhound.com/sh/skyhound.html

On Thu, 22 Jan 2004 12:30:46 -0700, Greg Crinklaw
wrote:

Anthony Ayiomamitis wrote:
Folks,

I just received a news flash from the Space Flight Now web site
(run by Astronomy Now Magazine) and it seems to be official that
communication HAS been lost.

It's not that bad yet. In fact, they do have two way communication.
It's just not working properly. There is a serious problem, apparently
in the computer. But if it is a software problem (which is not
unprecedented) then there is a good chance for recovery; time to reboot.
If it is hardware that is another matter, but even then there are
possible solutions.

If I were you I'd find another news source less likely to indulge in
hyperbole, or did you add that yourself...

The misrepresentation is the poster's. Spaceflightnow is, in my not
so humble opinion, a pretty good source on the mission.

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/mars/mera/status.html

Martians just don't want to give up secrets.

Anyway, it is always a mystery when one moment it's doing all it should and
is beaming back
good health then all of a sudden POOF. Didn't they test this thing in
extreme cold in some JPL refrigerator
over a long period of time?

There is still hope

http://athena.cornell.edu/news/


http://mars.telascience.org/
Join in chat at #maestro on irc.freenode.net #ukweather on Undernet and
#usweather on Austnet.
K2MAH

Michael wrote:

There is still hope

http://athena.cornell.edu/news/

That's a cool link. Thanks. Nothing like getting word directly from
the horses mouth!


--
Greg Crinklaw
Astronomical Software Developer
Cloudcroft, New Mexico, USA (33N, 106W, 2700m)

SkyTools Software for the Observer:
http://www.skyhound.com/cs.html

Skyhound Observing Pages:
http://www.skyhound.com/sh/skyhound.html

Greg Crinklaw wrote:

Anthony Ayiomamitis wrote:

Folks,

I just received a news flash from the Space Flight Now web site
(run by Astronomy Now Magazine) and it seems to be official that
communication HAS been lost.

Hey Greg,

It's not that bad yet. In fact, they do have two way communication.
It's just not working properly. There is a serious problem,
apparently in the computer. But if it is a software problem (which is
not unprecedented) then there is a good chance for recovery; time to
reboot. If it is hardware that is another matter, but even then there
are possible solutions.

If I were you I'd find another news source less likely to indulge in
hyperbole, or did you add that yourself...

What do you exactly mean by me adding something? There is no
transmission of data and it is only sending an acknowledgement beep. CNN
just mentioned that one good possibility is a software meltdown. As to
my source, it was identified up above.

Anthony.

Anthony Ayiomamitis wrote:
If I were you I'd find another news source less likely to indulge in
hyperbole, or did you add that yourself...

What do you exactly mean by me adding something? There is no
transmission of data and it is only sending an acknowledgement beep.

Simple: communication has not been lost with Spirit. Your subject
heading implies that there is no contact at all, which is alarmist and
not true. They can still command it and it is still sending a signal.
The signal received by MGS contained no meaningful data, but it was
received. A signal was also received that indicated Spirit has gone
into fault protection mode. All-in-all there is still quit a bit of
communication going on. Most likely the problem is in the computer,
which is not unprecedented, and there is good reason to believe it can
be fixed. If your subject heading were true, there would be little hope.

--
Greg Crinklaw
Astronomical Software Developer
Cloudcroft, New Mexico, USA (33N, 106W, 2700m)

SkyTools Software for the Observer:
http://www.skyhound.com/cs.html

Skyhound Observing Pages:
http://www.skyhound.com/sh/skyhound.html

Greg Crinklaw wrote:

Anthony Ayiomamitis wrote:

If I were you I'd find another news source less likely to indulge in
hyperbole, or did you add that yourself...


What do you exactly mean by me adding something? There is no
transmission of data and it is only sending an acknowledgement beep.


Simple: communication has not been lost with Spirit. Your subject
heading implies that there is no contact at all, which is alarmist and
not true. They can still command it and it is still sending a signal.
The signal received by MGS contained no meaningful data, but it was
received. A signal was also received that indicated Spirit has gone
into fault protection mode. All-in-all there is still quit a bit of
communication going on. Most likely the problem is in the computer,
which is not unprecedented, and there is good reason to believe it can
be fixed. If your subject heading were true, there would be little hope.

My take was different: At least one request was sent for data to be
transmitted and Spirit only acknowledged receiving the command. This is
very serious and effective/productive communication seems to be lost (at
least for now). There was also mention that the return signal from the
beep was weaker than expected.

If you ask me a question and I simply nod, I would not exactly call that
communication.

Anthony.

Anthony Ayiomamitis wrote:

Greg Crinklaw wrote:

Anthony Ayiomamitis wrote:

If I were you I'd find another news source less likely to indulge
in hyperbole, or did you add that yourself...



What do you exactly mean by me adding something? There is no
transmission of data and it is only sending an acknowledgement beep.



Simple: communication has not been lost with Spirit. Your subject
heading implies that there is no contact at all, which is alarmist
and not true. They can still command it and it is still sending a
signal. The signal received by MGS contained no meaningful data, but
it was received. A signal was also received that indicated Spirit
has gone into fault protection mode. All-in-all there is still quit
a bit of communication going on. Most likely the problem is in the
computer, which is not unprecedented, and there is good reason to
believe it can be fixed. If your subject heading were true, there
would be little hope.

Greg,

My take was different: At least one request was sent for data to be
transmitted and Spirit only acknowledged receiving the command. This
is very serious and effective/productive communication seems to be
lost (at least for now). There was also mention that the return signal
from the beep was weaker than expected.

If you ask me a question and I simply nod, I would not exactly call
that communication.

The news alert sent by the folks at SpaceFlight Now was titled
"NEWSFLASH: Contact lost with Spirit Mars Rover".

Also, as per these folks (
http://spaceflightnow.com/mars/mera/status.html ) and their bulletin at
1750 GMT: "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." (caps are mine for
emphasis)

An update twenty minutes later (same link above) suggests that part of
the software is functioning.

Anthony.

Anthony.