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If the spacecraft does not receive commands from Earth for seven days in a row, it is programmed to stop whatever it is doing and try to transmit a signal to Earth using its high gain antenna. This could happen at about 0014 GMT on Friday (1614 PST on Thursday), so NASA will be listening for a signal from MGS's high gain antenna at that time. Even if the spacecraft cannot transmit a high gain antenna signal to Earth, it might still be able to listen to commands. So NASA will send a command to have the spacecraft point its low gain antenna at Earth as a fallback. If no signal is heard on Thursday, NASA will listen again on Saturday, since it already tried to upload commands to the spacecraft on 4 November. ...if no signal is heard on either day, NASA may call on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) to take pictures of MGS early next week. The two spacecraft pass within about 100 kilometres of each other several times each week.
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