Phoenix lander’s work on Mars is delayed by a radio glitch
Prospecting near Mars’ north pole was set back at least a day Tuesday when a communications link to NASA’s Phoenix lander, nestled into a wide, undulating expanse nicknamed Green Valley, was interrupted by what spacecraft operators called a “transient event.”
The event, caused by a cosmic ray or some other high-energy particle, knocked out the UHF radio on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, one of two NASA spacecraft circling Mars that relay computer commands between Phoenix and Earth.