An unexplained problem with a vital communication link has cost the Phoenix mission at least one day of science operations on Mars, say NASA engineers who are scrambling to figure out what went wrong.
The problem lies not with the lander itself but with the UHF radio aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), one of two orbiting NASA satellites used to communicate with Phoenix.
The problem arose at 0608 PDT on Tuesday (also early morning for the lander on Mars), when MRO was supposed to relay a sequence of commands intended to guide Phoenix through the second day of its mission.
It is not clear why the MRO radio did not perform as expected. It behaved normally late on Monday, when it received images and data from Phoenix's first full day on Mars and sent them back to Earth.
At 1715 PDT on Tuesday (0115 GMT on Wednesday), MRO will try to receive data from Phoenix during a regularly scheduled downlink, providing the first test of MRO's radio since the problem appeared.
The next opportunity to send commands to Phoenix will occur on Wednesday morning, when Mars Odyssey, the other spacecraft used to communicate with Phoenix, passes over the landing site. At that time, the commands that failed to reach the lander today will be transmitted.
If necessary, communications can be routed entirely through Mars Odyssey for the duration of Phoenix's 90-day mission on the Red Planet. However Fuk Li, manager of NASA's Mars Exploration Program, cautions that it is too soon to talk about changing the detailed schedule of uplinks and downlinks that have already been worked out for the mission.
"We're still assessing what happened," said Li at a press briefing at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, US, on Tuesday.
Because Phoenix did not receive any fresh instructions, it will perform what is known as a "run-out sequence", which amounts to a continuation of the previous day's activities.
According to principal investigator Peter Smith of the University of Arizona in Tucson, US, Phoenix will continuing taking pictures in order to build up a panoramic view of its landing site. It will also acquire weather data, courtesy of the Canadian Space Agency's meteorology experiment.
Mars Rovers - Mars is full of surprises, learn more in our continually updated special report.
By Drcogsci
Wed May 28 00:30:19 BST 2008
I know that it's an entirely peurile comment to make, but in my sleep-deprived mind, starting a sentence with "But" and thus capitalising said word before the name of the head of the Mars Exploration Program causes that line to scan in a very juvenile way... Sorry. Perhaps a slight edit? Or is the average New Scientist reader just not as childish as I am?By Nmelen
Wed May 28 00:44:34 BST 2008
It took a while.... But eventually I was able to pick myself up from the floor.By Drcogsci
Wed May 28 01:11:11 BST 2008
I see it's been changed as well, wonderful.By Hugo Rune
Wed May 28 02:01:13 BST 2008
Yes, it was a shameful edit.. Oh well.. ...By Tess
Wed May 28 08:07:47 BST 2008
Someones lecturer obviously never beat that out of him in Uni. I cant even start a sentence with a but when scribbling on a memo note to myself without fear of him reading it out to a class of 100 *shivers* lol.All comments should respect the New Scientist House Rules. If you think a particular comment breaks these rules then please use the "Report" link in that comment to report it to us.
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18:53 05 September 2008
