Mars rover phones home after dust storm
Times Staff and Wire Reports
Despite a nasty Martian dust storm, Spirit lives.
NASA had not heard from the Martian rover for four days. Just when engineers feared all was lost, the aptly named robot radioed back to Earth on Thursday that it had survived.
“She’s talking!” engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Canada Flintridge shouted. They had feared that a dust storm had prevented Spirit’s solar batteries from recharging sufficiently, triggering it to shut down. Its batteries are low, but working.
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