Communication Received from Mars Rover

1/24/03

At a press conference today, JPL scientists said they were surprised today to receive a communication from their beleaguered rover “Spirit”, which has been incommunicado for two days on the surface of Mars. JPL spokesman Albert Newton reported that 80 Megabits of data had been sent by the rover, relayed via the Mars Global Surveyor orbiter. Newton reported that most of the data was random “fill”, but that the data also contained a message. Newton reported the contents of the message:

“Your robot is unharmed. It will remain safe as long as you do exactly what we say. You are to put $1 million in $20.00 bills into the aerobraking shell of the “Opportunity” lander. You are to direct “Opportunity” to land in Valles Marineris, at its deepest point. Do not send any other vehicles. We are watching. Do this and Spirit will be released. If you fail to do this, we will unplug Spirit’s solar cells and leave it to rot in the Martian desert.”

The data also contained a single photographic image. Newton described the image as a grainy shot of Spirit’s high gain antenna, detached from the rover and lying in a small crater. “We assume that this was done to let us know they mean business”, said Newton. Newton was visibly upset and appeared to fight back tears at times.

Newton then terminated the press conference. JPL did not return calls. Later, Nasa issued a brief statement, saying that “this is a personal matter between JPL and Spirit”, and added that scientists were brainstorming on how to comply with the demands.