Glitch as Mars rover phones home

[annabanana]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7858125.stm

The rover Spirit failed to carry out directions it received on Sunday, its 1800th day on the Martian surface.

Another anomaly, according to Nasa, was that the day's activities were not saved to the rover's long-term memory.

As of Wednesday, the rover seems to have recovered and is responsive to commands from Earth.

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) team operating Spirit will begin diagnostic tests to determine the cause of Sunday's glitches.

I'm afraid I have fallen into the human trap of anthopomorphizing those little rovers... I am concerned about the poor little thing so far from home and losing it's wits.

[eShirl]

1. maybe it encountered some MIBs

Martians In Black

[nykym]

2. Just curious on how long

it takes for the rover to receive a command form earth?

[POAS]

4. Depends

The two planets don't orbit at the same pace so the distance between the two varies from somewhere around 35 million miles to about 250 million miles. At 186000 miles per second the time lag to mars could be anywhere from 3+ to 22+ minutes.

[mike_c]

3. it's pretty amazing....

Those vehicles are operating in an incredibly harsh environment.

http://bp0.blogger.com/_4yFUK8-x5G0/R7niLo5T7NI/AAAAAAAAACQ/ybhJEj8Up6k/S220/Energizer+Bunny.jpg

[FailureToCommunicate]

5. But they trained in the halls of Congress: Wall-E will be okay...

[caraher]

6. It's amazing it's still going

As the photo caption in the article linked in the OP points out, it is around day 1800 of a "90-day" mission.

[zbdent]

7. apparently, we can't afford to accept the charges for the collect call

any more ...

[Sancho]

8. Marszheimer's!

:crazy: :think: :crazy: :think: :crazy: :think: :crazy: :think:

[pokerfan]

9. naughty rover requires discipline!

The rover Spirit failed to carry out directions it received on Sunday, its 1800th day on the Martian surface.