Signals Seek Response From Mars Lander

Jet Propulsion Laboratory mission managers Tuesday sent another set of commands to Mars to investigate the possibility that a signal detected by a radio dish at Stanford University came from the Mars Polar Lander.

The commands, at 10 a.m., will instruct the lander, if it is operating, to send a signal directly to the antenna at Stanford today about 1 p.m. The Stanford receiving station will listen during the window today to see if it picks up a signal that could originate from Mars.

It will take the team several days to process the data. One scientist called the effort a “real longshot.”