spacetoday.net: Spirit back to normal

Posted: Mon, Feb 2, 2004, 12:55 PM ET (1755 GMT)
Mars Exploration Rover (NASA/JPL)

The Mars rover Spirit is largely back to normal, project officials said Sunday, but it may be up to a week before the rover moves from its current position. Engineers said that the rover's computer, which has been resetting itself regularly when the problem first arose a week and a half ago, is now booting up normally. Controllers had deleted a number of files in the computer's flash memory that appeared to be causing the problem, although they plan to completely erase the flash memory and upload a clean version of the rover's flight software on Monday. The rover will resume its examination of the rock dubbed "Adirondack", which was interrupted by the computer problem, this week, and may move on to another, lighter-colored rock by the end of the week. Spirit’s twin, Opportunity, rolled off its lander onto the Martian surface early Saturday. Controllers plan to command Opportunity to extend its robot arm Monday to perform microscopic examinations of soil at the landing site.