You have commented 339 times on Rantburg.

Your Name
Your e-mail (optional)
Website (optional)
My Original Nic        Pic-a-Nic        Sorry. Comments have been closed on this article.
Bold Italic Underline Strike Bullet Blockquote Small Big Link Squish Foto Photo
Submit your comments on this article
-Short Attention Span Theater-
Rover makes short contact
2004-01-23
The US Spirit Mars rover communicated with Earth for 10 minutes overnight, one day after suffering a serious breakdown that cut off communication. The AFP news agency reports that data sent by the rover was captured by one of the antennas of the international Deep Space Network near Madrid, Spain. Spirit had been refusing to speak to Earth, transmitting only a short beep to indicate it was still alive. The vehicle was about to drill into a rock when the breakdown occurred.

Down, but not out.
Posted by:Steve

#13  Actually, from the photo it looks like Marvin is trying to focus the signal.... perhaps he has improvements in mind.
Posted by: Shipman   2004-1-23 5:28:12 PM  

#12  Damn,the Army of Steve is everrry where
Posted by: raptor   2004-1-23 4:59:11 PM  

#11  Damn,the Army of Steve is everrry where
Posted by: raptor   2004-1-23 4:59:09 PM  

#10  ...wondering WHAT those white things were..... (!$%#@!)
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama   2004-1-23 4:58:10 PM  

#9  AP reports it has found strong evidence of water as ice on Mars.

Hmph. And all the while I was those white things were around the Martian poles.....
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama   2004-1-23 3:03:17 PM  

#8  At least the orbiter is continuing to do its job--AP reports it has found strong evidence of water as ice on Mars.
Posted by: Dar   2004-1-23 12:32:02 PM  

#7  The AFP news agency reports that data sent by the rover was captured by one of the antennas of the international Deep Space Network near Madrid, Spain.

Nice how they make it sound like the Deep Space Network is like some sort of joint development, which it wasn't.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama   2004-1-23 11:06:44 AM  

#6  Is that Euroboy?
Posted by: Dragon Fly   2004-1-23 11:04:30 AM  

#5   Spirit had been refusing to speak to Earth, transmitting only a short beep to indicate it was still alive.

Taking a page out of the Osama handbook.
Posted by: Proud To Be An Infidel (JC)   2004-1-23 10:19:22 AM  

#4  "Can you hear me now?"
Posted by: CrazyFool   2004-1-23 9:51:20 AM  

#3  This is encouraging news! If there is some signal still coming from Spirit, it's a likely indication of a software glitch instead of a hardware problem. The former can be patched or perhaps circumvented (by changing commands, changing order of commands, or otherwise changing parameters). The latter means Spirit may just be a million dollar pile of junk.
Posted by: Dar   2004-1-23 9:42:17 AM  

#2  Reminds me of my laptop failure last year. It would beep but not boot. It may be quite a while before "Spirit" can be fixed -- NASA didn't buy Marvin's "in home service" plan.
Posted by: Tom   2004-1-23 9:42:03 AM  

#1  Silicon based life form threatened by Rover. Marvin the Martian defends himself.
Posted by: Chuck Simmins   2004-1-23 9:34:26 AM  

00:00