NASA out of touch with Mars craft
NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor has been out of contact with Earth for nearly a week, and engineers tried Friday to reestablish communication with the craft, which may be showing its age after 10 years in space.
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Canada Flintridge lost contact with the probe for two days last week, then received a weak carrier signal with no data on Sunday. Since then, Surveyor has not confirmed receiving a command to point one of its transmitters to Earth, project manager Tom Thorpe said. The Global Surveyor was launched Nov. 7, 1996, to systematically map Mars while orbiting the Red Planet. It has operated longer than the other Martian exploration craft.
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