Scientists began releasing the robotic arm on NASA’s new Mars spacecraft on Wednesday, one day late because of a radio problem. The Phoenix lander, which arrived on Mars on Sunday, is in excellent shape, said project manager Barry Goldstein. He said the communications glitch was only a blip in the robot’s three-month exploration of the planet’s northern arctic region. The outage occurred Tuesday in one of two NASA satellites circling Mars when a radio shut off before it could relay commands to the lander to get the 8-foot arm moving, Goldstein said.
