It is likely that Spirit has experienced a low-power fault and has turned off all sub-systems, including communication and gone into a deep sleep, trying to recharge her batteries. There is the additional risk that the rover may trip a mission clock fault.

If that happens, the rover would lose track of time and remain asleep until there is enough sunlight on the solar arrays to wake the rover, a state called "Solar Groovy."

When the rover wakes from a mission clock fault, she would only listen. So starting on Sol 2333 (July 26, 2010), the project implemented a new procedure to address the possible mission clock fault.

Each sol, the Deep Space Network mission controllers send a set of X-band beep commands, called "Sweep and Beep." If the rover has experienced a mission clock fault and is awake during the day, the rover will be listening during brief, 20-minute intervals each awake hour.

Because of the possible clock fault, the timing of these 20-minute listening intervals can't be known. So the project will fill the likely awake period with multiple "Sweep and Beep" commands.

If the rover hears one of these commands, it will respond back with an X-band beep signal, telling them she is there and allowing them to investigate the state of the rover further.

Although the project is using this new strategy now, a response from Spirit is not expected for some time, as the season is still very early spring on Mars.

Total odometry is unchanged at 7,730.50 meters (4.80 miles).

Share This Article With Planet Earth

del.icio.us	Digg	Reddit
YahooMyWeb	Google	Facebook

Related Links
Mars Rovers
Mars News and Information at MarsDaily.com
Lunar Dreams and more

NASA Seeks Data From Innovative Lunar Demonstrations Mimicking The Moon's Surface In The Basement Russia To Launch Moon Probe In 2012 Neil Armstrong, first man on the moon, to turn 80 US Senate panel votes to extend space shuttle program Last Shuttle External Tank Rollout At Michoud United Space Alliance To Slash Workforce As Shuttle Ends NASA reschedules two final space shuttle launches Third spacewalk needed to fix station cooling system: NASA Next Spacewalk No Earlier Than Wednesday US astronauts begin key ISS repair spacewalk NASA delays spacewalks to fix ISS cooling pump Recreating Venus In The Lab The Canadian Space Agency Invests In Concept Studies Was Venus Once A Habitable Planet Venus Express Shows Off New Findings Discovery Of Saturn's Auroral Heartbeat No Rings Around Saturn's Rhea Cassini Helps With Dune Whodunit Cassini Sees Moon Building Giant Snowballs In Saturn Ring Greenland Glacier Gives Birth To Giant Iceberg Satellites help measure Earth's water NASA Instrument Tracks Pollution From Russian Fires TerraSAR-X Image Of The Month: Tracking The Catastrophic Oil Spill Training Astronauts For Space - Under Water Senate passes its version of NASA budget This Month In Exploration - August Wyle Scientist To Study Stress In Haughton-Mars Project Spaceflight Analog Planets In Unusually Intimate Dance Around Dying Star Detector Technology Could Help NASA Find Earth-Like Exoplanets NASA Finds Super-Hot Planet With Unique Comet-Like Tail Recipes For Renegade Planets