[meteorite-list] MRO Spacecraft Out of Safe Mode

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed, 9 Dec 2009 13:45:07 -0800 (PST)
Message-ID: <200912092145.nB9Lj7Xw009791_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2009-186

Spacecraft Out of Safe Mode
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
December 08, 2009

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Mission Status Report

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter today has been
taken out of the precautionary "safe mode" it had been in since August.

Taking the spacecraft out of safe mode is the latest step in a series of
commands that are being sent to the orbiter this week. Engineers plan to
resume science operations once they conclude a check of all the science
instruments. Normal science operations may resume next week.

The mission flight team successfully uploaded new software last week
that provided a patch to prevent the orbiter from an unlikely scenario
of back-to-back computer resets that could potentially jeopardize the
mission.

"The patient is out of danger but more steps have to be taken to get it
back on its feet," said Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project Manager Jim
Erickson of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

The flight team began an uplink of some preventive-care files on Monday,
Nov. 30, as part of a multi-step process preparing the orbiter to resume
its observations of Mars. The spacecraft went into a minimum-activity
safe mode on Aug. 26 when it spontaneously reset its onboard computer
for the fourth time this year. The orbiter had resumed normal operations
within a few days after each of the earlier resets: Feb. 23, June 4 and
Aug. 6. After the Aug. 26 event, the team chose to keep the spacecraft
in safe mode while investigating possible causes and ramifications of
the series of resets.

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft has been studying Mars with
an advanced set of instruments since 2006. It has returned more data
about the planet than all other past and current missions to Mars combined.

JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena,
manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for NASA's Science Mission
Directorate, Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, is the
prime contractor for the project and built the spacecraft.

Media contacts: Guy Webster
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-354-6278
guy.webster at jpl.nasa.gov

2009-186
Received on Wed 09 Dec 2009 04:45:07 PM PST