Hasta La Gadget!

NASA expects to have the Curiosity rover back up and exploring Mars “in a few days” time the space agency has announced, with the fix for the unexpected downtime “very straightforward” according to the mission lead. A software error was blamed for the rover being put into automatic fault-protection mode – freezing all activity – when a file was artificially inflated in size and thus failed a software check.

Curiosity has two computers – A-side and B-side – which it can switch between for the sake of redundancy. To ensure stability, files on both machines are regularly compared, making sure the systems are identical and thus the rover’s behavior the same no matter which computer is in control at the time.

However, a glitch in software caused one of the files to increase in size, after another, unrelated file was appended to it. That caused the automatic checks to fail the system, and Curiosity to be put into safe mode while teams back on Earth investigated.

According to Curiosity project manager Richard Cook, the fix should be swift. “We can just delete that file,” he explained, “which we don’t need any more, and we know how to keep this from occurring in the future.”

However, while the software tweaks are simple, waking Curiosity back up will be staggered over the space of a few days. It only leaves a relatively short window before the rover’s next period of isolation: as of April 4, the Jet Propulsion Lab will cease all remote commands for a four week period, as Mars will be blocked from a direct line of sight with the Earth by the sun. The team is concerned that commands might be corrupted by the obstruction.

Curiosity back roving Mars in days after “straightforward” fix says NASA is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Back on March 11, NASA was scheduled to apply two software patches to its Curiosity Mars rover after recovering from a problem with one of its on-board computers. Now the rover has run into another problem, this time with a software file error that is preventing it from performing most of its duties, though it remains in communication with the NASA team.

According to NASA, safe mode was caused by a failed command file size check, causing the rover to automatically revert into its protected mode. The rover was utilizing the B-side computer, which it switched to earlier this month when the A-side computer corrupted. The A-side computer was later restored to work as a back up for the B-side, but the rover did not switch over to it.

The incident happened late Saturday night, and has further set the rover’s schedule back, this time by a few days. NASA engineers expect Curiosity to resume its mission “in a few days.” Thus far, the rover has been incapacitated to some degree for most of the month, having experienced its initial computer problem and then later being put into sleep mode due to a solar flare.

This follows ahead of a 4-week moratorium on communicating with the rover that will start on April 4 due to the stars’ alignment, putting the sun in such a position that it could cause interference with any transmissions sent to the rover. Fortunately, the problem is easy to solve according to Curiosity’s project manager Richard Cook: “This is a very straightforward matter to deal with. We can just delete that file, which we don’t need any more, and we know how to keep this from occurring in the future.

[via NASA]

Curiosity put back into safe mode due to software error is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

“A fundamental question for this mission is whether Mars could have supported a habitable environment,” says lead Mars Exploration Program scientist Michael Meyer, quoted in a NASA press release today. “From what we know now, the answer is yes.” He’s referring to the latest Curiosity findings announced at a press conference today, which NASA says “shows ancient Mars could have supported living microbes.” That evidence specifically comes from powder the Curiosity rover drilled out of a rock near an ancient stream bed in Mars’ Gale Crater, which contained sulfur, nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and carbon — “some of the key chemical ingredients for life,” as NASA puts it. Mars Science Laboratory scientist John Grotzinger further explains that “we have characterized a very ancient, but strangely new ‘gray Mars’ where conditions once were favorable for life,” adding, “Curiosity is on a mission of discovery and exploration, and as a team we feel there are many more exciting discoveries ahead of us in the months and years to come.” You can find the full announcement after the break.

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Source: NASA

After analyzing rock samples collected by the Curiosity Rover, NASA has made an exciting discovery: Conditions on a newly discovered gray (instead of red) part of Mars show it had conditions that were “once were favorable for life.” It’s an incredible breakthrough. More »

Earlier this month, NASA’s Mars Curiosity rover experienced its first major malfunction, with one of its on-board computers experiencing a “memory glitch” and failing to go into sleep mode. A few days later, the space agency announced that the rover had been transitioned to its secondary computer and put back into active mode. Now, a tad over a week later, NASA has stated that it is making progress in its testing and assessment of the A-side computer’s memory.

According to NASA, its researchers will apply two software patches to the rover that concern both vehicle safing procedures and memory allocation for the on-board computer. Following these patches, which are tentatively set to go into effect this week, the team responsible for the rover will then look at the situation and determine whether full mission operations can be greenlighted.

NASA’s Deputy Project Manager for the Mars Science Laboratory Jim Erickson said, “These tests have provided us with a great deal of information about the rover’s A-side memory. 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.”

It has been an eventful month for Curiosity, which was put into sleep mode on March 6, shortly after the issues with the onboard computer, due to an incoming solar flare that could have potentially damaged the rover via radiation. Fortunately, such events often do not harm these devices, and it faired the situation without issue.

[via NASA]

NASA to apply two software patches to Curiosity rover is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.