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Files 'Overloaded' Mars Probe
BBC News ^ | January 26, 2004 | Unattributed

Posted on 01/26/2004 3:13:17 PM PST by quidnunc

Nasa scientists say hundreds of computer files that have accumulated on the Mars rover Spirit may be the cause of problems that have crippled it.

These "cruise files" will now be deleted from the second Mars rover Opportunity before it rolls on to Mars to begin its science mission.

The Spirit rover suffered a major malfunction on Thursday 22 January causing a loss of contact with Earth.

Opportunity landed on Sunday and is apparently in excellent health.

Surface development manager for Spirit, Jennifer Trosper, said the problem involved two types of memory used by Spirit: Ram and flash.

Contact re-established

The space required in the rover's Ram memory to manage the data files stored in its flash memory was more than anticipated due to the build-up of files, Ms Trosper told a news conference.

-snip-

(Excerpt) Read more at news.bbc.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Extended News; Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: mars; marsrover; opportunity; spirit
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1 posted on 01/26/2004 3:13:17 PM PST by quidnunc
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To: quidnunc
Damn poor OS that requires manual garbage collection.
2 posted on 01/26/2004 3:15:12 PM PST by js1138
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To: quidnunc
Hmmm... I think I'll go clear my Cache right now.
3 posted on 01/26/2004 3:15:52 PM PST by So Cal Rocket
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To: quidnunc
Just like I tell my non-computer-literate wife, YOU CAN'T JUST KEEP DOWNLOADING FILES WITHOUT DEFRAGGING AND/OR WIPING OLD ONES OUT EVERY ONCE IN A WHILE.
4 posted on 01/26/2004 3:16:01 PM PST by Johnny_Cipher (Miserable failure = http://www.michaelmoore.com/ sounds good to me!)
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To: js1138
Yep...
5 posted on 01/26/2004 3:16:15 PM PST by VaBthang4 (-He who watches over Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps-)
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To: quidnunc
It seems kinda weird that they didn't think of this, since everything else is going so well. But anyway, glad it sounds fixable and they can fix it for Opporunity.

And frankly, Opportunity looks like the vastly more interesting landing site at this point.
6 posted on 01/26/2004 3:17:14 PM PST by Monty22
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To: quidnunc
Damned popups...
7 posted on 01/26/2004 3:17:25 PM PST by Charles Martel (Liberals are the crab grass in the lawn of life.)
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To: quidnunc
Hit the delete button damn it!!! Delete Delete Delete.
8 posted on 01/26/2004 3:18:12 PM PST by Trueblackman (It is enough to make you smile and gloat)
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To: js1138
Damn poor OS that requires manual garbage collection.

Apparently a Microsoft product...

9 posted on 01/26/2004 3:18:23 PM PST by TXnMA (No Longer!!! -- and glad to be back home (and warm) in God's Country!!)
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To: quidnunc
1st step:

    dir c:\

2nd step:

    del *.jpg

    del *.gif

...

10 posted on 01/26/2004 3:20:54 PM PST by _Jim ( <--- Ann Coulter speaks on gutless Liberals (RealAudio files))
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bump
11 posted on 01/26/2004 3:21:41 PM PST by Professional Engineer (Then, Opportunity sends to Spirit, "Don't make me come around Mars to smack you")
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To: TXnMA
If we had continued R&D of the 680x0 chip, Amiga OS, germanium semiconductor
and had a translunar shuttle, we'd be mining asteroids now.
12 posted on 01/26/2004 3:21:56 PM PST by Diogenesis (If you mess with one of us, you mess with all of us)
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To: Charles Martel
you stole my line!
13 posted on 01/26/2004 3:21:59 PM PST by pctech
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To: js1138
Apparently an application error, not an OS flaw.

Unless you are suggesting that OS should read minds and determine which user files to delete.
14 posted on 01/26/2004 3:22:54 PM PST by adam_az (Be vewy vewy qwiet, I'm hunting weftists.)
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To: _Jim
Sod it, just go the whole hog:

del *.*

or better yet

format c:
15 posted on 01/26/2004 3:24:49 PM PST by alnitak ("That kid's about as sharp as a pound of wet liver" - Foghorn Leghorn)
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To: Johnny_Cipher
So what we have is a little rover that forgot to go to the bathroom 35million miles ago.
16 posted on 01/26/2004 3:26:44 PM PST by longtermmemmory (Vote!)
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To: MrsEmmaPeel
Fyi..
17 posted on 01/26/2004 3:28:02 PM PST by Dog ("America will never seek a permission slip to defend the security of our Country")
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To: _Jim
Somebody hacked the return path... All the files are really emails that start off "GROW AN ENOURMOUS AND THICK PROBE NOW!"
18 posted on 01/26/2004 3:28:26 PM PST by Axenolith (<tag>)
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To: quidnunc
Ahhh yes.....computer users know well....when your drive/memory/resources get low....you're screwed!
19 posted on 01/26/2004 3:28:37 PM PST by Bush Cheney
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To: quidnunc
So THAT's where my damned old Gateway went.
20 posted on 01/26/2004 3:29:29 PM PST by geedee (Few things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example.)
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