Wed, Mar 13, 2013
B-Side Computer Operating Nominally
NASA's Mars rover Curiosity continues to move forward with assessment and recovery from a memory glitch that affected the rover's A-side computer. Curiosity has two computers that are redundant of one another. The rover is currently operating using the B-side computer, which is operating as expected. Over the weekend, Curiosity's mission operations team continued testing and assessing the A-side computer's memory.
"These tests have provided us with a great deal of information about the rover's A-side memory," said Jim Erickson, deputy project manager for the Mars Science Laboratory/Curiosity mission at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "We have been able to store new data in many of the memory locations previously affected and believe more runs will demonstrate more memory is available."
Two software patches, targeting onboard memory allocation and vehicle safing procedures, are likely to be uplinked later this week. After the software patches are installed, the mission team will reassess when to resume full mission operations.
Controllers switched the rover to a redundant onboard computer, the rover's "B-side" computer, on Feb. 28 when the "A-side" computer that the rover had been using demonstrated symptoms of a corrupted memory location. The intentional side swap put the rover, as anticipated, into minimal-activity safe mode. Curiosity exited safe mode on Saturday, March 2, and resumed using its high-gain antenna the following day.
The cause for the A-side's memory symptoms remains to be determined.
NASA's Mars Science Laboratory Project is using Curiosity to assess whether areas inside Gale Crater ever offered a habitable environment for microbes. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.
(Image provided by NASA)
More News
Chaff Thin, narrow metallic reflectors of various lengths and frequency responses, used to reflect radar energy. These reflectors, when dropped from aircraft and allowed to drift d>[...]
“Today, XB-1 took flight in the same hallowed airspace where the Bell X-1 first broke the sound barrier in 1947. I’ve been looking forward to this flight since founding>[...]
“Teaming up with the EAA and Berlin Express for this event in Cincinnati will give warbird fans a unique opportunity to see the aircraft that helped defend freedom and gave t>[...]
Hazardous Weather Information Summary of significant meteorological information (SIGMET/WS), convective significant meteorological information (convective SIGMET/WST), urgent pilot>[...]
Aero Linx: The Nebraska Aeronautics Commission The Nebraska Aeronautics Commission was created by the 1935 Legislature to oversee the development of aviation in the state. The Comm>[...]