Hasta La Gadget!

On March 1, we reported that NASA’s Mars Curiosity rover had experienced its first big problem, an issue with a corrupted on-board computer that prevented the robot from going into sleep mode. Fortunately, the machine has a secondary backup computer, but the malfunction prompted Curiosity to be put into Safe Mode as a precaution. NASA announced earlier today that it has been transitioned back into its active status.

The process happened over the period of about a week, which the space agency had initially stated would be the estimated transition period during which operations were switched to the secondary computer. The cause of the corruption is still being determined, but word has it that space radiation could be to blame.

The corruption issue was limited to the computer’s memory, and so NASA is in the process of getting it back up and running to use as the backup computer for the secondary side, which is now in use. The secondary computer is known as the “B-side,” while the first computer is known as the “A-side.” This is the worst problem the rover has encountered over the last seven months.

Said NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory Project Manager Richard Cook, “We are making good progress in the recovery. One path of progress is evaluating the A-side with intent to recover it as a backup. Also, we need to go through a series of steps with the B-side, such as informing the computer about the state of the rover — the position of the arm, the position of the mast, that kind of information.”

[via NASA]

Mars Curiosity rover is no longer in safe mode, says NASA is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

NASA’s Curiosity rover has mostly had smooth sailing since it touched down on Mars last year. Unfortunately, it’s in a more precarious position as of this past Thursday. After noticing corrupted memory files on the robot’s primary computer, overseers have kicked Curiosity into a “safe mode” with a backup computer while they determine what’s wrong and deliver any viable fixes. Don’t think of this like you would the Safe Mode on a Windows PC, though. While the backup can serve as a replacement for the main computer, project manager Richard Cook warns Space.com that it will likely take “several days” to supply enough information that the failsafe can take over. NASA will switch back to the main computer if and when it’s ready; if it is, the agency hopes to harden the code against future flaws. Curiosity will effectively stay on ice in the meantime… and not the variety it might want to find.

Filed under: Robots, Science, Alt

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Source: Space.com

So far it’s been smooth sailing for the Curiosity rover on Mars, and it’s even taken the time to snap a few Instagram-worthy self portraits. However, NASA has announced that Curiosity suffered its first major malfunction. One of its onboard computers became corrupted and wasn’t going into sleep mode when commanded to do so.

The Curiosity rover has two computers on board, one of which is a backup. NASA team members had to begin switching all operations over to the backup computer, which will delay operations by about a week, according to NASA. The space agency says that this is the most serious problem that the rover has experienced in its seven months on Mars.

Space radiation may be to blame for the corrupted computer, resulting in software glitches that interrupted the transmission of scientific data. Luckily, it seems that the computer’s memory only became corrupted, so the data itself stored on drives was not corrupted. Of course, NASA isn’t 100% sure that radiation was the culprit, but it was the cause of past minor problems.

Curiosity is equipped with two computers, known as A and B. The B-side computer was used during the flight from Earth to Mars, while the A-side computer has been the main machine controlling the rover since it landed back in August. NASA is currently working to get the rover back to 100% health, but no timeline was given.

[via National Geographic]

Mars Curiosity rover experiences first major malfunction is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

NASA scientists won’t have to wait until InSight’s 2016 drilling mission to see what lies beneath the surface of Mars — Curiosity is already on the case. After developing a taste for Martian soil late last year, the intrepid rover has started exploring the red planet’s bedrock, drilling a 0.63 inch (1.6 cm) wide hole 2.5 inches (6.4 cm) deep into Mars’ surface. Curiosity will spend the next several days analyzing the resulting powder in hopes of finding evidence of a once-wet planet. The shallow hole marks the first drilling operation ever carried out on Mars, and getting there wasn’t easy. “Building a tool to interact forcefully with unpredictable rocks on Mars required an ambitious development and testing program,” explained Louise Jandura, the chief engineer of the rover’s sample system. “To get to the point of making this hole in a rock on Mars we made eight drills and bored more than 1,200 holes in 20 types of rock on Earth.” The Rover tested its drill by creating a shallower hole earlier this month, though samples will only be used from the second, deeper cavity. Check out the source link for more images of the operation, including an animated GIF of the drill in action.

Filed under: Misc, Transportation

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Via: Bloomberg

Source: NASA

The Curiosity rover on Mars has been keeping itself quite busy lately, most recently boring into Mars’ red surface in order to find signs of life. However, in its downtime, the rover likes to take a lot of photos, including self-portraits, but this time around, Curiosity came across a strange chunk of metal sticking out of the ground? What could it be?

The photo was snapped on January 30 using one of the rover’s MastCam cameras to get shots of the landscape, and it ended up getting this odd piece of metal in the frame. NASA’s scientists aren’t 100% sure what it is, but they think it may be a chunk from a meteorite, or possibly a chunk of ore that became exposed by some sort of erosion.

It’s said that the object is only a half-centimeter tall, so it’s extremely tiny compared to how big it looks in the image. NASA hasn’t said whether or not it will check out the piece of metal, or if they’ll just ignore it and continue on with their planned experiments. After all, they do have more holes to drill.

However, while some think it’s simply a tiny piece of metal, Elisabetta Bonora of Alive Universe Images, mentions that the hunk of metal takes up about 35 pixels in the image. Taking into account the camera’s resolution and the distance between the rover and the object, the size of the chunk of metal may actually be larger than just 0.5 cm — it’s possible that it’s up to a foot tall. At this point, we’ll never know, unless NASA decides to investigate, but it’s very possible they just might let it be and continue on as scheduled.

[via Universe Today]

Curiosity rover discovers strange piece of metal on Mars is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.