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[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

NASA Loses Contact With Mars Global Surveyor

On Nov. 2, one orbit after commands were sent for a routine maneuver to move the solar panels, the spacecraft reported that the motor moving one of the arrays had experienced errors. Onboard software responded as programmed, switching the spacecraft to a backup motor controller, then to a backup circuitry connection.

Engineers are striving to restore full communications with NASA's Mars Global Surveyor on the 10th anniversary of the spacecraft's Nov. 7, 1996, launch.

The orbiter is the oldest of five NASA spacecraft currently active at the red planet. Its original mission was to examine Mars for a full Martian year, roughly two Earth years. Once that period elapsed, considering the string of discoveries, NASA extended the mission repeatedly, most recently on Oct. 1 of this year.

The orbiter has operated longer than any other spacecraft ever sent to Mars. It has returned more information about Mars than all earlier missions combined and has succeeded far enough beyond its original mission to see two later NASA orbiters arrive: Mars Odyssey and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Among many important accomplishments so far, Mars Global Surveyor has found many young gullies apparently cut by flowing water, discovered water-related mineral deposits that became a destination for NASA's Opportunity rover, mapped the planet topographically and examined many potential landing sites on Mars.

No further signal was heard during subsequent orbits on Nov. 5 and Nov. 6. Engineers concluded that the spacecraft had made an additional pre-programmed response, intended to help it survive when it senses that a solar array is stuck. The spacecraft turns that array toward the sun to maintain its power supply and rotates the rest of the spacecraft in the same direction, thereby making communication with Earth less effective.

"The spacecraft has many redundant systems that should help us get it back into a stable operation, but first we need to re-establish communications," said Tom Thorpe, project manager for Mars Global Surveyor at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Mars Global Surveyor Goes Quiet After 10 Year Mission To Mars

Houston (UPI) Nov 13, 2006
NASA engineers tried Monday to re-establish contact with the Mars Global Surveyor, which has quit communicating with Earth. The 10-year-old spacecraft has failed for a week to respond to communications to adjust a solar panel, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration said.

The space agency has tried to re-establish communications every two hours since Nov. 6, ABC News reported.

"The spacecraft has many redundant systems that should help us get it back into a stable operation, but first we need to re-establish communications," project manager Tom Thorpe said in a NASA statement.

If communication cannot be restored, NASA may try to diagnose the problem by having another spacecraft, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, take pictures of the Mars Global Surveyor.

The surveyor was launched Nov. 7, 1996, and has been orbiting Mars since September 1997. It has far outlasted its original mission, which ended in 2000. NASA has continually extended its mission since then.

Source: www.marsdaily.com/reports/Mars_Global_Surveyor_Goes_Quiet_After_10_Year_Mission_To_Mars_999.html

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I hope it can be corrected, but after ten years of service...I think we got our moneys worth and reams of valuable data...

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Space Probe to Search for Missing Craft

The Mars Global Surveyor lost touch with Earth for two days earlier this month. Last week, engineers received a weak signal with no data. Since then, the spacecraft has not confirmed receiving a command to point one of its transmitters to Earth.

On Friday, the space agency directed another probe, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, to use its cameras to scan the area where the Global Surveyor might be.

Scientists will not know until early next week whether the Reconnaissance Orbiter located the missing probe, said Veronica McGregor, spokeswoman for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which manages both spacecraft.

"We still don't know if it's in the field of view," McGregor said.

Launched on Nov. 7, 1996, to systematically map Mars, the Global Surveyor is the longest-operating Martian exploration craft. It has discovered features suggesting water once flowed on the planet's surface and looked at potential landing sites for future exploration.

The Reconnaissance Orbiter, which slipped into orbit last year, is the most powerful probe ever sent to the Red Planet.

Source: www.physorg.com/news83049371.html

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[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

NASA's Mars Global Surveyor May Be at Mission's End

Pasadena, Calif. - NASA's Mars Global Surveyor has likely finished its operating career. The spacecraft has served the longest and been the most productive of any mission ever sent to the red planet.

"Mars Global Surveyor has surpassed all expectations," said Michael Meyer, NASA's lead scientist for Mars exploration at NASA Headquarters, Washington. "It has already been the most productive science mission to Mars, and it will yield more discoveries as the treasury of observations it has made continues to be analyzed for years to come." Its camera has returned more than 240,000 images to Earth.

The orbiter has not communicated with Earth since Nov. 2. Preliminary indications are that a solar panel became difficult to pivot, raising the possibility that the spacecraft may no longer be able to generate enough power to communicate. Engineers are also exploring other possible explanations for the radio silence.

"Realistically, we have run through the most likely possibilities for re-establishing communication, and we are facing the likelihood that the amazing flow of scientific observations from Mars Global Surveyor is over," said Fuk Li, Mars Exploration Program manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "We are not giving up hope, though."

Efforts to regain contact with the spacecraft and determine what has happened to it will continue. NASA's newest Mars spacecraft, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, pointed its cameras toward Mars Global Surveyor on Monday. "We have looked for Mars Global Surveyor with the star tracker, the context camera and the high-resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter," said Doug McCuistion, Mars Exploration Program director at NASA Headquarters. "Preliminary analysis of the images did not show any definitive sightings of a spacecraft."

The next possibility for learning more about Mars Global Surveyor's status is a plan to send it a command to use a transmitter that could be heard by one of NASA's Mars Exploration Rovers later this week.

www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/mgs/index.html

Source: www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.nl.html?pid=21335

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I wonder if the Martians got annoyed with it.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Did the MGS Break Apart?

Search teams looking for the silent Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) got more bad news last week. The Opportunity Mars rover sitting near Victoria Crater in Meridiani Planum didn’t hear a peep during two radio signal attempts as MGS flew overhead last Tuesday and Wednesday.

There’s possibly another bit of worrisome data too.

Engineers using a star tracker on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) swept the possible whereabouts of MGS. In analyzing the data, two points of light may have been detected that were not in a star catalog. Last week there was some speculation — just that, speculation — that pieces of MGS might have been observed. But there was also caution that the data was still being analyzed.

Other objects that were not in the star field were also picked up by the MRO star tracker - but these were well off the predicted orbit track of the missing-in-action MGS and are possibly cosmic ray hits in the equipment’s electronics.

Meanwhile, use of MRO’s super-powerful zoom lens camera system — HiRISE — didn’t spot MGS. HiRISE did see a few star streaks, but nothing that could be MGS, HiRISE principal investigator, Alfred McEwen of the University of Arizona told me. MGS should have produced a very strong signal if it was in view, he said.

More news about the MGS search situation is likely forthcoming.

Source: www.livescience.com/blogs/2006/11/27/mars-global-surveyor-mums-the-word/

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I wonder what hit it... or if the Martian Air Defense took a shot.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Human Error May Have Doomed Mars Probe

NASA is investigating whether incorrect software commands may have doomed the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft, which abruptly fell silent last year after a decade of meticulously mapping the Red Planet.

The space agency said that theory is just one of several that may explain the probe's failure. NASA on Wednesday announced the formation of an internal review board to investigate why the Global Surveyor lost contact with controllers during a routine adjustment of its solar array.

John McNamee, deputy director of solar system exploration at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said a preliminary investigation points to incorrect software commands uploaded to the spacecraft in June.

The software was aimed at improving the spacecraft's flight processors. Instead, bad commands may have overheated the battery and forced the spacecraft into safe mode, McNamee told scientists gathered Tuesday in Virginia to plan for future Mars missions.

Records show there was an incorrect loading of software, which could have resulted in a cooling radiator for a battery being pointed at the sun, McCuistion said.

"It may have overheated and lost the battery, which then would not allow us to have adequate power to operate the spacecraft," McCuistion told AP Radio.

If the Global Surveyor's demise is traced to a technical error, the mistake raises questions about why engineers did not catch the problem before the software program was sent to the spacecraft.

"We're declaring it most likely dead," McCuistion said. "I doubt we will see it again."

Source: www.physorg.com/news87716806.html

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Geesh...I hate to be the goof who uploaded that command and fried the MGS!...