[meteorite-list] Curiosity Resumes Science Investigations

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon, 25 Mar 2013 16:42:37 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <201303252342.r2PNgblB002306_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2013-115

Curiosity Resumes Science Investigations
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
March 25, 2013

Mars Science Laboratory Mission Status Report

PASADENA, Calif. - NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has resumed science
investigations after recovery from a computer glitch that prompted the
engineers to switch the rover to a redundant main computer on Feb. 28.

The rover has been monitoring the weather since March 21 and delivered a
new portion of powdered-rock sample for laboratory analysis on March 23,
among other activities.

"We are back to full science operations," said Curiosity Deputy Project
Manager Jim Erickson of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

The powder delivered on Saturday came from the rover's first full
drilling into a rock to collect a sample. The new portion went into the
Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument inside the rover, which began
analyzing this material and had previously analyzed other portions from
the same drilling. SAM can analyze samples in several different ways, so
multiple portions from the same drilling are useful.

The Rover Environmental Monitoring Station (REMS) is recording weather
variables. The Radiation Assessment Detector (RAD) is checking the
natural radiation environment at the rover's location inside Gale Crater.

Like many spacecraft, Curiosity carries a pair of main computers,
redundant to each other, 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. The A-side was
most recently used starting a few weeks before landing and continuing
until Feb. 28, when engineers commanded a switch to the B-side in
response to a memory glitch on the A-side. The A-side now is available
as a backup if needed.

One aspect of ramping-up activities after switching to the B-side
computer has been to check the six engineering cameras that are
hard-linked to that computer. The rover's science instruments, including
five science cameras, can each be operated by either the A-side or
B-side computer, whichever is active. However, each of Curiosity's 12
engineering cameras is linked to just one of the computers. The
engineering cameras are the Navigation Camera (Navcam), the Front
Hazard-Avoidance Camera (Front Hazcam) and Rear Hazard-Avoidance Camera
(Rear Hazcam). Each of those three named cameras has four cameras on it:
two stereo pairs of cameras, with one pair linked to each computer. Only
the pairs linked to the active computer can be used, and the A-side
computer was active from before landing, in August, until Feb. 28.

"This was the first use of the B-side engineering cameras since April
2012, on the way to Mars," said JPL's Justin Maki, team lead for these
cameras. "Now we've used them on Mars for the first time, and they've
all checked out OK."

Engineers quickly diagnosed a software issue that prompted Curiosity to
put itself into a precautionary standby "safe mode" on March 16, and
they know how to prevent it from happening again. The rover stayed on
its B-side while it was in safe mode and subsequently as science
activities resumed.

Upcoming activities include preparations for a moratorium on
transmitting commands to Curiosity from April 4 to May 1, while Mars
will be passing nearly directly behind the sun from Earth's perspective.
The moratorium is a precaution against possible interference by the sun
corrupting a command sent to the rover.

NASA's Mars Science Laboratory project is using Curiosity and the
rover's 10 science instruments to investigate the environmental history
within Gale Crater, a location where the project has found that
conditions were long ago favorable for microbial life. 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

2013-115
Received on Mon 25 Mar 2013 07:42:37 PM PDT