Stellary Starry Universe

 

NASA’s Mars rover Spirit is displaying odd behavior that puzzled engineers. NASA engineers are scratching their heads over some unexpected behavior from the long-lived Spirit rover, which began its sixth year exploring Mars this month.

Spirit failed to report in to engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif., last weekend, prompting a series of diagnostic tests this week to hunt the glitch’s source. The aging Mars rover did not beam home a record of its weekend activities and, more puzzlingly, apparently failed to even record any of its actions on Sunday, mission managers said.

“We don’t have a good explanation yet for the way Spirit has been acting for the past few days,” said NASA’s Sharon Laubach, who leads the JPL team that that writes and checks commands for the rover and its robotic twin Opportunity. “Our next steps will be diagnostic activities.” [...]

Source: Space.com – click here for full article