Fergie's Tech Blog

NASA Struggles to Contact Lost Mars Probe

David Shiga writes on NewScientistSpace:

An unexpected break in communications has NASA struggling to restore contact with its Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) spacecraft. If communication cannot be restored soon, NASA may try to diagnose the problem by having another spacecraft, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, take pictures of MGS.

MGS recently had its 10-year anniversary in space. It was launched on 7 November 1996 and has been orbiting Mars since September 1997. It has far outlasted its original mission, which ended in 2000. NASA has repeatedly extended its mission since then.

As expected, NASA did not hear from the spacecraft during the second half of October, during which time the Sun and Mars were too close in the sky for reliable communication with spacecraft on the Red Planet.

posted by Fergie @ 11/09/2006 04:09:00 PM