Publicité
Nasa fears worst for spacecraft
The orbiter entered a “safe mode” as it struggled to control a solar panel, and engineers have not been able to contact the probe since 2 November.
Nasa will use the Rover Opportunity on the surface of the Red Planet to try to speak to the 10-year-old spacecraft in the next couple of days. However, mission officials concede they are not expecting success.
“While we have not exhausted everything that we could do, we believe the prospect of recovery of MGS is not looking very good at all,” said Fuk Li, Mars exploration programme manager at Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
“However, MGS has been a good friend; it’s had an illustrious career, the data it has collected has taught us a lot about Mars and it will continue to teach us a lot about Mars”.
“We’re still holding out some hope but we are fully prepared in our hearts that we may never be able to talk to the spacecraft again.”
Publicité
Publicité
Les plus récents
