spacetoday.net: Mars rovers suffer glitches

Posted: Thu, Aug 5, 2004, 12:29 PM ET (1629 GMT)
Mars Exploration Rover (NASA/JPL)

NASA's twin Mars Exploration Rovers, operating on the surface of the Red Planet for over six months, are starting to encounter problems that may be related to age and wear, project officials said Wednesday. On Sunday a semiconductor component used to control three spectrometers on the rover Spirit failed to turn on as planned, resulting in error messages from one of the spectrometers. Engineers believe that the problem can be avoided by adding a delay in a sequence of commands sent to the rover, but until that time the three spectrometers are not being used. Spirit's twin, Opportunity, has generated error messages when taking images with the microscopic imager on its arm. Engineers believe that wear and tear on cables in the arm might be generating the error messages, which have not prevented the instrument from successfully taking images. Rover operators plan to use the arm sparingly in the future to limit any additional wear on the cables. Despite these problems, however, both rovers continue to operate well and are continuing to return scientific data.