February 23, 2004

Mars Rover problems - what happened

Here is a write up of exactly what caused the problems with the Mars Rover and how they were fixed... In the EE Times: bq. When the Mars rover Spirit went dark on Jan.21 a Jet Propulsion Laboratory team undertook to reprogram the craft's computer only to find themselves introducing an unpredictable sequences of events. bq. The trouble with the Mars rover Spirit started much earlier in the mission than the day the craft stopped communicating with ground controllers. bq. "It was recognized just after [the June 2003] launch that there were some serious shortcomings in the code that had been put into the launch load of software," said JPL data management engineer Roger Klemm. "The code was reworked, and a complete new memory image was uploaded to the spacecraft and installed on the rover shortly after launch." Fascinating - I'm only excerpting the first three paragraphs -- the article goes into a lot more detail of what happened, how they were able to diagnose it and fix it. Cool stuff and JPL has some very sharp programmers... Posted by DaveH at February 23, 2004 1:10 PM
Comments

During the Voyager mission (I think - but best to check for sources - I'm writing this from memory & I'm slightly drunk & it's late and I'm off to bed now) the software in the probe was modified many times, including at times like when the cameras developed faults as they were approaching Neptune. How cool is that? Repairing a machine hundreds of millions of miles away.

Posted by: Rob Hinkley at February 23, 2004 1:37 PM