Updated – Spirit Alive, But in “Critical” Condition. Mars Express Sees Water Ice and Ancient River Channel

Updated - January 24, 2004  Pasadena, California -

Spirit Communication Revived Briefly,
But Rover's In "Critical" Condition

On January 23, the flight team for NASA's Spirit rover finally received data from the silent robot in a communication session that began at 5:26 a.m. PST and lasted 20 minutes at a data rate of 120 bits per second. Spirit's response was provoked by a JPL command to Spirit at 5:02 PST via the NASA Deep Space Network antenna complex near Madrid, Spain, telling Spirit to begin transmitting about its problems.