Did the "Mars Curse" try to knock out NASA's flagship rover mission to the Red Planet? Or was the rover's computer glitch just a routine mishap that NASA fixed without breaking a sweat?
It would appear that, in this case, the latter is true. But I suspect there was still some nervousness for mission controllers as they troubleshooted to find the problem affecting the one-ton, 2.5 billion dollar hibernating robot.
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On Nov. 29, only three days after NASA's Mars Science Laboratory "Curiosity" launched, the cocooned rover experienced a mystery computer reset. As reported by Space.com, as Curiosity was using its star scanner -- a navigation tool used by the rover's spacecraft to make sure it stays on target to Mars -- a glitch occurred, forcing the reset. The glitch was caused by a previously unknown idiosyncrasy in the memory management unit of the spacecraft's computer processor.
When the glitch occurred, the computer's fail-safe forced a restart.
Fortunately, mission engineers at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Calif., where the MSL is managed, were able to deduce where the problem was and tested a different software configuration on a test computer. Last week, nearly three months after launch, new commands were uploaded to Curiosity's computer to make sure such a problem doesn't happen again.
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"Good detective work on understanding why the reset occurred has yielded a way to prevent it from occurring again," said JPL mission deputy project manager Richard Cook. "The successful resolution of this problem was the outcome of productive teamwork by engineers at the computer manufacturer and JPL."
Running the new software this week, Curiosity's star tracker has Mars in its cross hairs. "Our target is in view," said JPL's Steve Collins, attitude control subsystem engineer for the spacecraft's cruise from Earth to Mars.
At time of writing, Curiosity is 127 million miles (205 million kilometers) into its 352-million-mile (567-million-km) voyage, traveling at a speed of 17,800 mph (28,600 kph) relative to Earth. It is expected to land on the Martian surface inside Gale Crater on Aug. 6, 2012.
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Image: Artist's rendering of Mars Science Laboratory in the cruise-phase of its mission. Credit NASA
Tags: Mars, NASA, Space Technology
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