[meteorite-list] Computer Swap on Curiosity Rover

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu, 28 Feb 2013 16:30:31 -0800 (PST)
Message-ID: <201303010030.r210UVsr017117_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2013-078

Computer Swap on Curiosity Rover
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
February 28, 2013

Mars Science Laboratory Mission Status Report

PASADENA, Calif. - The ground team for NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has
switched the rover to a redundant onboard computer in response to a
memory issue on the computer that had been active.

The intentional swap at about 2:30 a.m. PST today (Thursday, Feb. 28)
put the rover, as anticipated, into a minimal-activity precautionary
status called "safe mode." The team is shifting the rover from safe mode
to operational status over the next few days and is troubleshooting the
condition that affected operations yesterday. The condition is related
to a glitch in flash memory linked to the other, now-inactive, computer.

"We switched computers to get to a standard state from which to begin
restoring routine operations," said Richard Cook of NASA's Jet
Propulsion Laboratory, project manager for the Mars Science Laboratory
Project, which built and operates Curiosity.

Like many spacecraft, Curiosity carries a pair of redundant main
computers in order to have a backup available if one fails. Each of the
computers, A-side and B-side, also has other redundant subsystems linked
to just that computer. Curiosity is now operating on its B-side, as it
did during part of the flight from Earth to Mars. It operated on its
A-side from before the August 2012 landing through Wednesday.

"While we are resuming operations on the B-side, we are also working to
determine the best way to restore the A-side as a viable backup," said
JPL engineer Magdy Bareh, leader of the mission's anomaly resolution team.

The spacecraft remained in communications at all scheduled communication
windows on Wednesday, but it did not send recorded data, only current
status information. The status information revealed that the computer
had not switched to the usual daily "sleep" mode when planned.
Diagnostic work in a testing simulation at JPL indicates the situation
involved corrupted memory at an A-side memory location used for
addressing memory files.

Scientific investigations by the rover were suspended Wednesday and
today. Resumption of science investigations is anticipated within
several days. This week, laboratory instruments inside the rover have
been analyzing portions of the first sample of rock powder ever
collected from the interior of a rock on Mars.

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.

More information about Curiosity is online at
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/msl , http://www.nasa.gov/msl and
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/ . You can follow the mission on Facebook
at: http://www.facebook.com/marscuriosity and on Twitter at:
http://www.twitter.com/marscuriosity .

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

2013-078
Received on Thu 28 Feb 2013 07:30:31 PM PST