NASA Mars Rover Spirit Update: Winter Solstice One Week Away

Spirit Status for sol 2248-2253

Spirit remains silent at her location called “Troy” on the west side of Home Plate. No communication has been received from the rover since Sol 2210 (March 22, 2010).

It is likely that Spirit has experienced a low-power fault and has turned off all sub-systems, including communication. The rover will use the available solar array energy to recharge her batteries. When the batteries recover to a sufficient state of charge, Spirit will wake up and begin to communicate over X-band. When that does happen, Spirit will also trip an up-loss timer fault. This fault response will allow the rover to communicate over Ultra-High Frequency (UHF) as well.

It is not known when the rover will wake up, so the project has been listening for any X-band signal from Spirit through the Deep Space Network every day. The Mars Odyssey orbiter is also listening over any scheduled UHF relay passes. The winter solstice is only one week away.

Total odometry is unchanged at 7,730.50 meters (4.80 miles).