comm. problems

Leonard David, of Space.com, Space News, (he's one of the reporters that's at all the press briefings and he asks some of the best questions) reports on a communication problem today with Spirit:

PASADENA, Calif. – A communique released late afternoon Wednesday from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) has indicated an unresolved issue with the status of the Spirit Mars rover.

According to a JPL statement, ground controllers were able to send commands to the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit early Wednesday and received a simple signal acknowledging that the rover heard them.

However, ground controllers here did not receive expected scientific and engineering data from Spirit during scheduled communication passes during the rest of that martian day.

Project managers have not yet determined the cause, but similar events occurred several times during the Mars Pathfinder mission, stated a JPL press release.

The team is examining a number of different scenarios, some of which would be resolved when the rover wakes up after powering down at the end of the martian day (around midday Pacific time Wednesday).

This, after a problem sending commands up to Spirit this morning (attributed to rain over Canberra), seems a bit concerning and I sure hope it's nothing serious. I trust that Leonard is reporting things pretty straight here and it sounds like it came pretty directly from a statement or letter at JPL this afternoon. He's not alarmist and I probably shouldn't be either but the wild successes we've seen so far have be a bit nervous. I'm crossing my fingers and heading home. I'll let you all know if I find any more information on this.

update: The actual NASA/JPL press release can be found here.