BOULDER, Colorado - In a
high-tech game of celestial hide and seek, a Mars orbiter has tried to image a
lost-in-space red planet probe.
NASA's
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) has been used to attempt locating the space agency's
Mars Global Surveyor (MGS)--all in an effort to discern what caused the spacecraft to
fall silent several weeks ago.
But
after using several MRO instruments, the true whereabouts of MGS and its
overall status are still unknown.
"We
may have lost a dear old friend and teacher, Mars Global Surveyor," said
Michael Meyer, lead scientist for the Mars Explorations Program at NASA
Headquarters in Washington, D.C.
Meyer
took part in an update today from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California with scientists, engineers and managers detailing the status of the
MGS search and the probe's past science accomplishments.
The
briefing was part-wake, part holding out hope that the errant Mars probe could
still be heard from again.
No definitive sighting
The
last peep from MGS was on November 5, after notifying ground controllers that
it had problems with a balky solar panel. For weeks, attempts to bring the Mars
orbiter back on line were met with a silent response from the misbehaving
probe.
"In
the last two weeks we have not been able to establish communication with the
spacecraft in a normal fashion," said Fuk Li, Mars Program Manager at JPL. Over
that period of time more than 800 command files were sent to re-establish
communication with MGS, but none of them have been successful, he said.
To
help in the search for MGS, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter was tasked last
Friday, and again Monday to try and spot the MGS within a select region of
space.
"Our
preliminary analysis so far has not yielded any definitive sighting of MGS," Li
said.
Rover to lend an ear
A
next step is use of the Opportunity Mars rover to listen for a low-power
antenna on MGS. Earth controllers will try today and tomorrow to activate an
MGS antenna to transmit a signal to Opportunity, now sitting near Victoria
Crater within Meridiani Planum.
Whatever
the rover picks up--if anything--would be relayed to the Mars Odyssey
spacecraft also orbiting the red planet for rebroadcast back to Earth.
Jim
Erickson, JPL project manager for MRO said that analysis of all the MRO search
imagery is still underway. After studying the results from Opportunity's listen
session for MGS, as well as other assessments, a decision on utilizing the MRO again
will be weighed, he told SPACE.com.
Tom
Thorpe, Project Manager for the MGS at JPL said that the spacecraft's power can
vary considerably if one of its solar panels is turned completely away from the
Sun - but is also a situation that creates a marginal spacecraft energy
situation.
"The
power could be supported on only one panel. As long as we're getting enough
power the spacecraft is capable of maintaining itself. We have attitude gas,
for example, that could keep us in this mode for one or two years. It's
anybody's guess as to where that stuck panel is pointed...but we feel that
there's a good chance that we're getting enough power to maintain operations,"
Thorpe told SPACE.com.
Old-timer and good friend
The
Mars Global Surveyor is an old-timer. In fact, it is the oldest of five NASA
spacecraft currently active at the red planet - three orbiting Mars while the
Spirit and Opportunity Mars rovers continue duties on the planet's surface.
Joining in on the exploration is the Mars Express, also circling Mars and is
operated by the European Space Agency (ESA).
So
far, NASA has not requested any assistance from ESA to help in the quest to
bring MGS back to life.
MGS
is a long-lived spacecraft that recently celebrated a decade of space
exploration after its launch on November 7, 1996. The robust Mars probe has far
surpassed its initial warranty of a full martian year (roughly two Earth
years), yielding a wealth of discoveries over a span of time. MGS had its
mission extended repeatedly, most recently in October of this year.
In
total, the Mars Global Surveyor program has been a $377 million investment in
opening up the red planet to intensive exploration.
"While
we have not exhausted everything that we could do...we believe that the prospect
of recovery of MGS is not looking very good at all," JPL's Li explained. "It's
been a good friend...and we are certainly feeling we might be losing a good
friend from our family here," he added.
Li
said that everyone is still holding out some hope, but are fully prepared for
the prospect of never being able to talk to the spacecraft again. "But we are
also fully prepared to celebrate the fact that it has been a job well done," he
added.
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