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Mars Probe Hampered By Radio Glitch

by Will Safer on May 28, 2008 at 09:01 AM


The first thing the news Mars lander Phoenix wanted to do when it reached the red planet was stretch its arm. (What do you typically do after a long flight?)

This first step was hampered, though, by a radio communications glitch that delayed its activity for most of Tuesday. The glitch, however, was aboard the Reconnaissance, the Mars orbiter responsible for relaying data between the planet surface and mission control here on cozy planet Earth. The extremely smart folks at NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab who head up the Mars lander program say the radio on the orbiter likely switched its radio off due to a cosmic ray.

Even though the glitch has been fixed, a second orbiter, the Odyssey, will be used for now to relay information to Phoenix. The lander has settled on a promising patch of Martian soil that looks like it may contain ice about one foot below the surface, which could mean evidence of life. The arm will be used to start digging the surface to collect samples for analysis.

The effort to explore Mars has been hampered by unexpected glitches before. A major computer malfunction severely hampered the abilities of the polar lander in 1999. Another craft intended to study Mars' atmosphere wasn't properly calibrated, which caused it to burn up as it approached the Red Planet. [Source: CNN]


Tags: glitch, lander, mars, space

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