Mars Global Surveyor’s mission will be ten years old on Tuesday.
UPDATE: Uh-oh…looks like MGS’ ten-year warranty must have expired, right on schedule:
NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor has been out of contact with Earth for nearly a week and engineers tried Friday to re-establish communication with the craft, which may be showing its age after 10 years in space.
The space agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena lost contact with the probe for two days last week, then received a weak carrier signal with no data on Sunday. Since then, Surveyor has not confirmed receiving a command to point one of its transmitters to Earth, project manager Tom Thorpe said.
This is, alas, nothing to do with MGS.
I can’t find an email address for you, so I am posting a comment.
There is a Heinlein Centennial next year in Kansas City, his home town. 7/7/7 of course is his 100th birthday (falls on a Saturday!). See http://www.heinleincentennial.com or email me.
Bummer of a time for the spacecraft to go on the blink:
http://space.com/news/061110_mgs_missing.