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The NASA Curiosity robot suffered an anomaly during a start-up sequence on February 15, which made it go into safe mode. He was out of safe mode four days later.
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Lloyd Campbell
February 28, 2019
A self-portrait made by NASA's Curiosity robot, made on February 15, 2018 (Sol 2082). At the time of shooting, a Martian dust storm had reduced sunlight and visibility at the rover site in Gale Crater. A borehole can be seen in the rock to the left of the mobile on a target site called "Duluth". Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS
NASA's Curiosity rover, which is currently flying Mouth Sharp on the surface of Mars, suffered an anomaly during the start-up sequence on February 15, 2019, putting it in secure mode.
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory's (JPL) Curiosity team, which is leading the mission, analyzed all the data at its disposal and finally released the rover from safe mode on February 19 and the rover started completely. The mobile has since successfully started more than 30 times without any other occurrence of the still undetermined problem that led him to go into safe mode.
The rover is currently in an area nicknamed Glenn Torridon. This is a region of Mount Sharp with lots of clay minerals. Photo credit: NASA
"We are still not sure of its exact cause and we are collecting the relevant data for the analysis," said Steven Lee, Deputy Project Manager of Curiosity at JPL, in a press release. "The mobile has had a one-time computer reset, but it has been working normally since, which is a good sign. We are currently working on taking a snapshot of her memory to better understand what could have happened. "
As long as engineers do not understand better what has happened to the rover, the team will no longer conduct scientific operations.
"In the short term, we limit the controls to the vehicle to minimize changes in its memory," Lee said. "We do not want to destroy any evidence of what might have caused the computer to reset. As a result, we anticipate that scientific activities will be suspended for a short time. "
Until the rover is allowed to resume his experiments, the scientific team has many data and images to study that have already been collected at Glen Torridon. A potential drill point is located 200 meters from the current location of the mobile and the next orders sent to the spacecraft may very well consist of instructions for moving it to this site.
"The science team is eager to take our first sample from this fascinating place," said Ashwin Vasavada, a researcher at JPL, Curiosity project researcher. "We do not yet understand how this area fits into the general history of Mount Sharp, so our recent images give us food for thought."
With the recent end of Mission Rover Opportunity, which was killed last summer, Curiosity is the only active rover on the surface of Mars. A lander named InSight landed on the Plains of Elysium Planitia in November 2018 and is the only other active mission on the Martian surface. Another rover should be launched on the red planet in 2020.
Tagged: Mars Navy NASA Curiosity Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Lloyd Campbell
Lloyd Campbell's first interest in space began when he was very young, in the 1960s, with NASA's Gemini and Apollo programs. This passion continued in the early 1970s with our continued exploration of our Moon and was renewed by the shuttle program. After witnessing the launch of Space Shuttle Discovery on his last two missions, STS-131 and STS-133, he began using more social networks on space, which allowed him to develop more detailed. Since then, he has witnessed the launch of the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover, the new Orion spacecraft rated by the crew during the Exploration Flight Test 1, as well as at numerous other launches without preparation. In addition to writing, Lloyd also photographed more launches and aviation. He loves all aspects of space exploration, human and robotics, but his main passions are human exploration and vehicles, rockets and other technologies that allow humanity to explore the world. # 39; space.
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