Ten-Year-Old Mars Surveyor Hasn't Responded For A Week

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) hasn't received any signals from Mars Global Surveyor since last Sunday.

Project manager Tom Thorpe told the Houston Chronicle JPL lost contact with the probe for two days the week before. On Sunday, the agency received a weak carrier signal, but no data. JPL has been trying to get Surveyor to re-aim one of its transmitters back at Earth.

The $247 million mission launched in November 1996 with the Surveyor spacecraft to map Mars from orbit. The spacecraft sports a powerful camera and radio equipment to transmit images back home. That mission was to last only two years.

Surveyor has operated since then helping scientists confirm suspicions that Mars may have once had flowing rivers much like Earth. Aside from those ground features, Surveyor's cameras helped mission controllers chose potential landing sites for other planned Mars missions.

There are three other craft circling the red planet, and two on its surface. NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and Odyssey share orbit with the European Space Agency's Mars Express. NASA's Rovers Spirit and Opportunity still trundle about Mars' surface sending invaluable scientific data to Earth.

FMI: www.nasa.gov