NASA’s Perseverance rover, which launched early Thursday morning, is suffering from a minor communications issue, NASA confirmed.<\/b>
\nThe spacecraft carrying NASA\u2019s Perseverance rover, launched successfully early Thursday morning, is suffering from a minor communications issue, NASA confirmed.
NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine announced there was a small communication issue, but reassured the public that the spacecraft is healthy and on the correct trajectory.
He described the communications issue as something that NASA has seen in the past with other Mars missions.
\u201cWe\u2019re using the Deep Space Network to receive the signals from the spacecraft right now,\u201d Bridenstine explained. \u201cWell, the Deep Space Network is a very sensitive receiver, it\u2019s designed to capture very faint signals from deep space. And the spacecraft right now \u2014 yes, it\u2019s in deep space, it\u2019s a good distance from the Earth \u2014 but it is not the distance we would normally be receiving from using the Deep Space Network.
\u201cSo what this does is, it puts us in a position where the carrier wave \u2014 we have a strong carrier wave \u2014 but we haven\u2019t been able to lock on to the modulation of that signal to receive the data.
\u201cThis is not unusual. Everything is going according to plan. We do need to fine-tune our receiving stations on the ground and do some things to capture that signal and lock on. But I think we\u2019re in great shape.\u201d
Matt Wallace, deputy project manager at NASA\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, confirmed that the spacecraft was very stable and there was plenty of time to address the communications issue.
\u201cThere\u2019s nothing we need to do urgently,\u201d Wallace said. \u201cIn fact, we got such a good insertion from the launch vehicle, we\u2019ve got plenty of time before we have to make our first trajectory correction maneuver. Nominally, it\u2019s about 15 days after launch but we probably have time well beyond that based on how well we did. So we\u2019ve got plenty of time to get the signal and to start interacting with the spacecraft.\u201d
The communications issue was not the only drama of the day. A magnitude 4.2 earthquake shook the San Fernando Valley in California in the early hours of the morning, with tremors felt in the mission control room in Pasadena before the launch. Fortunately, the quake did not impact the ground control personnel or the facility and they were able to continue with the launch as planned.
For now, tweaking to the Deep Space Network ground stations will continue to address the communications issue. NASA also announced that the first telemetry data about the Perseverance spacecraft, such as thermal information, should be coming within the next few hours.<\/p>\n