Cable Forum - Glitch forces Mars probe shut-off

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4213706.stm

Quote:

A glitch has forced Nasa's Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) spacecraft to shut down its science instruments.

The spacecraft has switched into a "safe mode", in which the instruments and some other systems are turned off

Team members are racing to get the probe out of this mode so it can photograph the presumed crash site of a US Mars mission lost in 1999.

The pictures could decide whether design changes are needed on a probe due to launch for Mars in 2007.

Next week will provide the last opportunity to take images of the crash site of Mars Polar Lander (MPL) for another two years.

It seems that all is not lost however

Quote:

Mr Thorpe said that both computers had now been re-booted and that the back-up computer had come out of safe mode into the less drastic contingency mode.

On Sunday, the primary computer is expected to move into contingency mode, too.

This will allow communication to be re-established over the spacecraft's high-gain antenna.