Jan 23, 9:56 AM EST

NASA Gets New Signals From Mars Rover

By ANDREW BRIDGES
AP Science Writer

PASADENA, Calif. (AP) -- NASA engineers received a half-hour of total transmissions Friday morning from the Spirit rover and planned further communications with it in an effort to diagnose and possibly patch up their ailing robotic patient on Mars.

NASA heard from the six-wheeled rover for 10 minutes at about 4:30 a.m. and received data for 20 minutes about an hour later.

"The spacecraft sent limited data in a proper response to a ground command, and we're planning for commanding further communication sessions later today," Pete Theisinger, rover project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said in a statement early Friday.

Officials did not immediately elaborate on the signals. If they contain significant data, the transmissions would mark the first such signals in two days - a period of anxious waiting for scientists after normal communications halted Wednesday.

Engineers hope Spirit will manage to send some engineering data, which can be used to assess the health of the spacecraft, pinpoint any problems and allow NASA to begin working on a potential fix or fixes.