NASA probe's condition critical; twin nears Mars

Saturday, January 24, 2004

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Spirit rover lay in critical condition Friday on Mars, coughing up only a few gasps of data, as engineers struggled to diagnose the ailment and also deal with the impending arrival of its twin spacecraft on the Red Planet. Controllers heard three times from Spirit after two days in which the six-wheeled vehicle transmitted only gibberish or sporadic beeps to acknowledge commands from Earth. The last batch of data, relayed to Earth by the 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft, indicated Spirit's power system was OK, said Ed Weiler, NASA associate administrator for space science. More data was expected early today. Engineers believe some sort of underlying hardware problem triggered the crisis. At the same time engineers dealt with the crisis, Spirit's twin, Opportunity, neared Mars for its own landing late today.

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