Mars rover phones home

Nasa engineers got a 10-minute signal today from the Spirit rover and planned further communications with it in an effort to diagnose and possibly patch up their ailing robotic patient on Mars.

The US space agency heard from the six-wheeled rover at about 12.30 Irish time.

The rover had been silent since Wednesday morning.

If it contains significant data, the transmission would mark the first such signal in two days – a period of anxious waiting for scientists.

Engineers hope Spirit will manage to send some engineering data, which can be used to assess the health of the spacecraft, pinpoint any problems and allow Nasa to begin working on a potential fix or fixes.

Today’s signal was received by Nasa’s Deep Space Network antenna complex near Madrid, Spain.