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#1
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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. |
#2
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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 |
#3
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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 |
#4
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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? |
#5
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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 |
#6
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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 |
#7
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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. |
#8
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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 |
#9
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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. |
#10
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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. |
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