NASA probe resumes sending data to Earth

NASA’s Mars rover Spirit resumed sending some data to Earth yesterday, allaying some fears it had failed after two days of garbled communications and periods of intermittent silence, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory said.

JPL, which manages the Mars project for NASA, said in a statement that the flight team received a low-speed data transmission from Spirit starting at 1326 GMT (8:26 a.m. EST) and continuing for 20 minutes.

“The spacecraft sent limited data in a proper response to a ground command, and we’re planning for commanding further communication sessions later today,” the Mars Exploration Rover Project Manager, Mr Pete Theisinger, said.

The flight team had sent a signal beforehand from a NASA antenna complex in Spain with commands for Spirit to begin transmitting.

The six-wheeled craft landed on the red planet on January 3rd for a three-month mission. Officials had described the loss of communications as a “very serious anomaly”. On Thursday, Spirit indicated it was receiving Earth transmissions, but it did not resume sending data back to Earth.