Posted on 09/24/2014 8:07:31 AM PDT by BenLurkin
No science data is missing after the Opportunity Mars rover had a brief “amnesia” event last week, NASA said in an update posted yesterday (Sept. 23). The hiccup occurred a few days after the rover had a reformat to correct ongoing memory problems that were stopping it from doing its mission.
The latest incident happened when the rover “woke up” for a day of work. It was unable to mount its Flash memory, which can store information even when the rover is shut off for the night.
An investigation is ongoing, NASA said, but the rover was performing normally as it scooted towards a small crater called Ulysses last week.
(Excerpt) Read more at universetoday.com ...
No Total Recall, huh?
It’s incredible to think that a 90 day mission has turned into 10 years and counting. It’s like the Energizer bunny, lol.
http://www.cs.odu.edu/~mln/ltrs-pdfs/NASA-99-marsw-jww.pdf
The cosmic ray and cosmic ray secondary environment is not good for electronics. NASA planned for single event upset and total ionizing dose, but if the environment is tougher than planned or the electronics are not as hard as they thought (we are learning stuff about memories and neutrons all the time) the electronics can glitch.
I hope the rover can survive!
Some little green men didn’t want their picture taken.
>> The hiccup occurred a few days after the rover had a reformat to correct ongoing memory problems that were stopping it from doing its mission.
WHY WHY WHY would they put Windows Vista beta 3 in a mission critical application?
Another reason to leave road trips to the young.
Yeah, those Mars Rovers have been some of the more successful NASA missions. One can’t overstate the success of Cassini, Hubble(after some initial problems), the Voyager probes, the Shuttle program, and the Mars Rovers. I’m sure that I’m neglecting to mention some.
I didn’t include the Apollo program on my list, and the early space program(s), because it wasn’t NASA back then, and we had more guts about us. Assuming we’d never tried it before, I SERIOUSLY doubt we would even attempt to send men to the Moon these days. It just wouldn’t happen. I’m sure we could develop the necessary technology, but that’s where it would stop.
EVERYTHING is far to politicized now, compared to the 1960s. A manned Lunar mission would end up being a costly boondoggle. We’d feel the need to include other nations/races, we’re so overly risk averse, and we would paralyze ourselves into near inaction, and it would be SLOW. It would end up taking 25 years, and costing $TRILLIONS. I wouldn’t be a BIT surprised if the next manned mission to the Moon were a private venture. Perhaps using NASA for facilities, logistics, and consultation.
“I wouldn’t be a BIT surprised if the next manned mission to the Moon were a private venture. “
I suspect it will be China.
Mars Rover Battles ‘Hillary Effect’ In Middle Of Red Planet Road Trip
Shouldn’t it read like this??
It is amazing that this rover is still functional
Establishing the base on the Moon won’t be that expensive.
The yuan will be spent efficiently.
The original plan was a 90 day mission, it’s been 10 years.
That’s a lot of unplanned fluence!
It probably spazzed out when it woke to find it had curled up against Sheila’s flag.
True. I hadn’t considered manned missions by other nations.
I think China sent a rover up there during the last year or so. It’s not THAT big of a leap to do a manned mission after that. Just need to come up with the necessary life support systems and a method for return(surely easier said than done). We were able to do a successful return for every mission we landed on the Moon back in the 60s/70s, so I have no reason to believe the Chinese wouldn’t be able to do likewise now.
The only REAL danger we faced on a Lunar mission was of course with Apollo 13, and we still got those guys back, though it was a bit of a miracle, combined with some incredible work by mission control/thinkers on the ground, and perfect skill/execution by the crew.
What the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs accomplished during that time is one of the greatest achievements in the history of mankind.(as far as we know) I believe that was the peak of American power and greatness. It has been pretty much downhill from there, with a few exceptions. I don’t see anything that makes me hopeful for a turnaround at this point in time.....
Now we know what happened to Lois Lerner's hard drive.
We need traffic rules for Mars!
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