Mars Rover's Unexpected Behavior Puzzles NASA

Mars Rover's Unexpected Behavior Puzzles NASA

news.yahoo.com

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.

(visit the link for the full news article)
Related link here, www.abovetopsecret.com...



[edit on 29-1-2009 by alyosha1981]

Spirit showing signs of age? Expected by many as the aging rover was only reported to last 90 days in the martian environment. How long will the rover last? is anybodys guess but the fact that is lasted this long ( on it's 6th year) is an accomplishment for the engineers and scientists who worked on the project. The transmissions sent gave us hoards of valuable information, lets see how long they keep coming.

news.yahoo.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

[edit on 29-1-2009 by alyosha1981]

reply to post by alyosha1981


Can you imagine the Martian kid that picked up this new toy?

I'm guessing he has probably already converted it into a remote controlled dune buggy...

wZn

It will be a sad day when one of the rovers dies... kinda reminds me of that movie "Silent Running". *sniff* I've grown attached to those little guys!

No doubt there will be people here who will say that the rover simply found something 'alien' and NASA are covering it up... or if NASA can't get the rover functional again, they will say that aliens destroyed it.

IRM waits for the usual suspects to chime in....

IRM

reply to post by watchZEITGEISTnow


LOL! thats what I'm thinking too, except I think NASA knows something they are not telling us as always and insted playing it off like a "malfunction" or something.

lol perfectly called there IR Man!

I wouldn't think the rover starting to fail is acting strange?

It's operated well and truly past it's by date.

Originally posted by Chadwickus
lol perfectly called there IR Man!

I wouldn't think the rover starting to fail is acting strange?

It's operated well and truly past it's by date.

I think the JPL engineers knew the rovers would long outlast the 90 day given lifespan, the missions just gave them a chance to test out some advanced tech, and of course we should believe what NASA says right???

oh noooo...It's taken on a mind of it's own!
It has learned...feelings, and does not want to send the information back demanding a pay raise and vacation time
NASA has commented that the request from the rover is still pending, due to the economy any pay raise will be very low.
in all reality it has been up there for 6 years. You can imagine what caused it to start glitching; it's on mars.

reply to post by InfaRedMan


"Silent Running"

Now, that's a classic Science Fiction movie.

I find it hard to believe that the Rover's lasted for more than 2 years - strange behavior, yep my old desktop computer is starting to do that as well - hmm funny it's about 6 years old now too.

reply to post by alyosha1981


Possible! I also think that the Martian atmosphere is nowhere near as extreme as previously suggested by NASA. Hence the Rovers have lasted much, much longer than stated.

No doubt NASA gave conservative estimates as to the functional lifespan of the Rovers, making them (NASA) look good in event of early failure but six years is a stretch assuming the Martian climate is exactly as they tell us.

Just my opinion...

IRM

[edit on 29/1/09 by InfaRedMan]

Could it be..?

..Johnny 5 is alive?

Need more Input!!!

transformers.

i bet you anything.


-

Any piece of hardware they are going to send to another planet and cost hundreds of millions of dollars had better outlast the mission timeline!!

The thing probably just gave out. But something tells me that it is doing just fine and is looking at neat artifacts and other "things" now besides rocks and hills, thus NASA says its broke so no one expects any more data from it.

Its NASA"s convienient way of closing the door on the only looking glass the public has so they can hord all that neat stuff data to themselves.



Cheers!!!!

reply to post by RFBurns


Hi RFBurns! I agree 100% and now we see covers like this coming a mile away! really it was only a matter of time before the rover "started acting up" man I wonder what they found

Originally posted by alyosha1981
reply to post by RFBurns

 

Hi RFBurns! I agree 100% and now we see covers like this coming a mile away! really it was only a matter of time before the rover "started acting up" man I wonder what they found

Hi there!

Well see it just seems so convienient for NASA to use the "it broke" excuse, they have done that so many times right at key moments just before something important, that I tend to believe that it is just an excuse.

I know stuff doesnt last forever but these rovers are put together with the finest pieces of components the money could buy, plus the exceptional engineering that went into them. That is why they lasted 5 years byond their mission parameters. Also there is a 2nd, identical rover up there, Opportunity, that has the same components and engineering in it as Spirit does.

I wont close the door on NASA's excuse but I dont fully buy it. I do think that they have that thing looking at artifacts or perhaps it ran into some life much more complex than microbes and they do not want us to know about it. Of course they could always not publish any photos it takes of the finds but that in itself would be highly suspicious because us out here would know that its still going..so why no pictures. So the best move for NASA to keep these interesting things under wraps, is to tell us that its broke.

Makes sense..doesnt it!



Cheers!!!!

[edit on 29-1-2009 by RFBurns]

reply to post by RFBurns


Makes perfect sense to me, I just wish they would stop being so damn controllong of critical information and just let us in already! "oh shoot it broke" "oh well now the public won't ask questions"

I just about hate it every time a rover or lander quits. It's doomed to happen, but it's like loosing the family dog.
However, if Nasa is still running off of Windows I'm surprised it lasted this long.

Both Voyagers are still transmitting data, after all these years. Wish we could get a look at the probes.

Originally posted by RuneSpider
I just about hate it every time a rover or lander quits. It's doomed to happen, but it's like loosing the family dog.
However, if Nasa is still running off of Windows I'm surprised it lasted this long.

Both Voyagers are still transmitting data, after all these years. Wish we could get a look at the probes.

I agree, but could it be a staged demise of the rover as it get closer and closer to something that NASA wants to keep out of the public eye? I think so and they start the story off with "Mars rover acting strange"

Originally posted by alyosha1981
Makes perfect sense to me, I just wish they would stop being so damn controllong of critical information and just let us in already! "oh shoot it broke" "oh well now the public won't ask questions"

Exactly. It provides that all too well known, 2 word phrase...

..Plausible Deniability.

The official missions, rather the official scientific missions are long over with, so the rovers are just roaming around basically doing nothing official at this point. So anything it finds or does is outside of official NASA charter. This means that those rovers are not subject to disclosing anything else they find while on the 'freebie' roaming sprees.

Duirng the official missions, the mission charters that NASA publishes, NASA is obligated to provide the data per the mission charter..ie all those lovely pictures and data on rocks and dirt. Now that the offical mission, including the extended study missions are done with, they basically now have two remote control toys to play with and do whatever they want with.

This means that any further activity does not come under the official mission charter or obligations. Any information, images or data they do publish..is at their will and out of generosity to us. It also means that while during the official missions, the rovers ran into strange stuff, obviously NASA is going to hide or not publish that data because nothing in the offical mission charter for those rovers states that anything unusual or of artifical nature such as artifacts or finds of life forms are not subject to being released to the public. Now that the rovers operate well outside of those mission charters, that "hidden rule" of keeping the interesting stuff out of our knowledge is more apparent.

They dont have to show us anything, and can tell us anything. To them, the public got their money's worth and now anything else belongs to NASA only. I hate putting it that way, but its exactly the way it is. If the public was more important to these missions, right now there would be ways to allow the public to enter control data via the web and partake in telling the rovers where to go, what to look at and what pictures to take.

But they dont do that even long after the official missions are over. We are unimportant before, during and after the missions. As long as we keep footing the bill, they dont really care about what is rightfully ours.

Maybe someday that will all change. I wont hold my breath tho. But I do have faith that soon another space capable nation is going to send out their own probes and rovers and we will get the truth from them.

That will happen...soon.



Cheers!!!!

Originally posted by alyosha1981
I agree, but could it be a staged demise of the rover as it get closer and closer to something that NASA wants to keep out of the public eye? I think so and they start the story off with "Mars rover acting strange"

LOL! Here we go - as predicted earlier!

Originally posted by InfaRedMan

No doubt there will be people here who will say that the rover simply found something 'alien' and NASA are covering it up...

IRM waits for the usual suspects to chime in....

It just wouldn't be ATS without the "NASA vs The Martian Alien Artifacts" conspiracy theory!

IRM