NASA Mars Rover Spirit Remains Silent at Troy

Spirit Status for sol 2540-2545: No communication has been received from Spirit since Sol 2210 (March 22, 2010).

Deep Space Network X-band listening and “Sweep & Beep” commanding continue. The Sweep & Beep command duration has been shortened to 10 minutes, increasing the likelihood of commands being received within the 20-minute awake (fault) window for the case of a mission clock fault response on Spirit.

Further, the Deep Space Network X-band frequency reference offset (FRO) is stepped over a much larger range to account for the possibility of a degraded receiver on the rover. Scheduled DSN passes now occur over a broader range of local times of day on Mars covering the possibility that the rover’s clock has drifted significantly since March of 2010. The period of maximum solar insolation (energy production) for Spirit occurs around mid-March 2011.

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