Jan. 11, 2007 — NASA is investigating whether human error caused the loss of Mars Global Surveyor, a 10-year-old probe credited with finding signs of liquid water on the planet's surface.
The spacecraft fell silent in November after a problem with one of its solar array panels. Preliminary findings indicate software that was uploaded to Global Surveyor earlier in the year may have contained an error that set off a chain of events leading to the probe's demise.
Global Surveyor had already lasted four times longer than its design lifetime, but was about to embark on what might have been its most critical observations yet.
Scientists had hoped to fly the spacecraft over parts of Mars previously imaged to look for topographical changes. It was not just wishful thinking: Scientists had already found two locations showing signs of very recent water flows on the planet's surface.
It will be up to NASA's new spacecraft, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, to pick up the surveys, as engineers have virtually no hope of recovering Global Surveyor.
"We still listen for it, but that's really the extent of it," NASA's Mars Exploration Program director Doug McCuistion told Discovery News.
The agency has set up a investigation board to try to figure out what happened to Global Surveyor. McCuistion said the software glitch is among the possible scenarios.
"Something may have occurred that we may never know," he added.
