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| Marvin Strikes Again | |
| 2004-01-22 | |
| NASA’s Spirit rover stopped transmitting data from Mars for more than 24 hours, mission managers said Thursday, calling it an "extremely serious anomaly." NASA speak for "Shit!!"
Sure you aren’t tuned to Al Franken’s radio show? Initially, the scientists said they believed weather problems on Earth caused the glitch. They now said they believe the rover was experiencing hardware or software problems. "This is a serious problem. This is an extremely serious anomaly," project manager Pete Theisinger said. NASA speak for "There goes next years budget" Spirit is one half of a $820 million mission. Its twin, Opportunity, is scheduled to land on Mars on Saturday. They’re worried it might have the same problem if it turns out to be a design flaw. NASA last heard from Spirit as it prepared to continue its work examining its first rock, just a few yards from its lander. It was Marvin The Martians favorite rock. He’s very protective, you know. Since then, Spirit has transmitted just a few beeps to Earth in response to attempts to communicate with it. It has also skipped several scheduled communications opportunities, either directly with Earth or by way of two NASA satellites in orbit around Mars. Engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory worked to pinpoint the yet-unknown problem. "It’s not clear there is one cause ... that would explain the observables we’re seeing," deputy project manager Richard Cook said. NASA speak for "We don’t f#&*$%@*g know what happened." | |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #14 Doggies. It musta bin them dang Martian sab-o-toors what done it. |
| Posted by: Gasse Katze 2004-1-22 8:27:22 PM |
| #13 Awright awright awright, slack cut. I'd just sure like to see something that NASA did actually work as advertised. Maybe they need to use more duct tape. |
| Posted by: 4thInfVet 2004-1-22 6:39:21 PM |
| #12 I'm going to remount my Meade as an early mourning sign. POOT. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2004-1-22 6:22:49 PM |
| #11 Good Heavens I didn't realize I was so involved in the Dean/Martian Campaign. |
| Posted by: Al Gripe 2004-1-22 6:16:32 PM |
| #10 4thInfVet, cut em some slack. They're are the only people on earth who've actually managed to land a probe on another planet. If there was actually some other group or country who consistently pulled off something like this then I would say NASA's got problems. As it is now how could you possibly say they don't know what they're doing or need a "house cleaning"... there's noone in the world who does it better. |
| Posted by: Damn_Proud_American 2004-1-22 5:08:41 PM |
| #9 You bastards! Making ha ha with the OS. Moooruunns. We are waiting for the Beagle and the European probe to make it's first move. We have spaced out the ring. We will buzz like butterfly and sting like a Dean. AAAAAAAAAAAAGHHHHHHHHHHH! |
| Posted by: Ali Viking ! 2004-1-22 5:06:10 PM |
| #8 Wait for morning reboot. Else power on and off. If you got'em pray'em |
| Posted by: Shipman 2004-1-22 5:01:18 PM |
| #7 #4 - I heard it was in fact WindRiver's OS running on the rover. "I can say no more." |
| Posted by: eLarson 2004-1-22 3:18:07 PM |
| #6 Well, at least we did better than the Europeans. This could also be just some magnetic interference from Mars. Probably the magnetic problem since it's still transmitting, even though it's static. In other words, Spirit is under Marvins powerline. |
| Posted by: Charles 2004-1-22 3:12:58 PM |
| #5 Spirit! Opportunity! Now, if a third rover was named "Liberation", then NASA would be .... nah! |
| Posted by: Highlander 2004-1-22 2:41:50 PM |
| #4 The blue screen of death. I know it well. Curse you, Bill Gates! |
| Posted by: Tom 2004-1-22 2:25:01 PM |
| #3 How long till Al-Qaeda releases audio claiming responsibility? |
| Posted by: Proud To Be An Infidel 2004-1-22 2:09:41 PM |
| #2 Spirit is one half of a $820 million mission. So, does that mean these putzes pissed away $410 mil, or is 'Opportunity' going to be the BIG disaster? NASA needs some serious house-cleaning. |
| Posted by: 4thInfVet 2004-1-22 2:04:24 PM |
| #1 So, they finally found the one that got through their orbital defenses. Damn. |
| Posted by: Robert Crawford 2004-1-22 1:58:47 PM |