Another Mars rover set for landing

Mars Exploration Rover project manager Pete Theisinger uses a model of the Rover to illustrate a point during a press conference at Jet Propulsion Labaoratory Friday in Pasadena, California, after Nasa received a transmission from the troubled Mars rover Spirit, the first in two days. "The chances it will be perfect again are not good," Theisinger told reporters at Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. "We have got a long way to go with the patient in intensive care.". PHOTO: AFP

Spirit, the first of the $820 million twin rovers sent to Mars to determine if it was once a wetter world capable of sustaining life, began to malfunction on Wednesday, nearly three weeks after landing on the planet's Gusev Crater.

For two days it transmitted only gibberish or sporadic beeps to acknowledge commands from Earth. On Friday controllers said they had begun to hear from it again, but it still wasn't working properly. Its prognosis was uncertain.

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"The chances that it will be perfect again are not good and the chances that it will not work again are also low," project manager Pete Theisinger said at Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Even under the best of circumsta-nces, the rover will not be back to normal for many days or even a couple of weeks, he added.

Engineers believe some sort of underlying hardware problem triggered the crisis that has wreaked havoc with Spirit's software and forced the rover to reboot its computer more than 60 times.

At the same time engineers dealt with the crisis, Spirit's twin, Opportunity, neared Mars for its own landing Saturday night.

Three hundred scientists and engineers, divided into two teams, are working on the double mission, and Theisinger has encouraged engineers to stay focused on Opportunity and not dwell exclusively on Spirit and its problems.