Mars rover resumes sending data back to Earth

LOS ANGELES: The Mars rover Spirit resumed sending some data to Earth on Friday, allaying some fears it had failed after two days of garbled communications and periods of intermittent silence, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) said.

JPL, which manages the Mars project for National Aeronautics Space Administration (NASA), said in a statement on its Website that the flight team received a low-speed data transmission from Spirit starting at 1326 GMT and continuing for 20 minutes. Ice on red planet: The first all-European mission to Mars has confirmed the presence of frozen water on the planet, the project’s leader said on Friday, as scientists seek to learn if life there ever existed. “It shows that we may be able to find water in other areas on Mars and that is very important for future missions to Mars,” project leader Michael McKay said in Germany. —Reuters

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