Spacecraft Computer Issue Resolved
Engineers have found the root cause of a computer reset that occurred two months ago on NASA's Mars Science Laboratory and have determined how to correct it.
Mars Science Laboratory Mission Status ReportPASADENA,  Calif. -- Engineers have found the root cause of a computer reset that occurred  two months ago on NASA's Mars Science Laboratory and have determined how to  correct it.The fix involves changing how certain unused data-holding  locations, called registers, are configured in the memory management of the  type of computer chip used on the spacecraft.  Billions of runs on a test computer with the  modified register configuration yielded no repeat of the reset behavior. The  mission team made this software change on the spacecraft's computer last week  and confirmed this week that the update is successful.The reset occurred Nov. 29, 2011,  three days after launch, during use of the craft's star scanner. The cause has  been identified as a previously unknown design idiosyncrasy in the memory  management unit of the Mars Science Laboratory computer processor. In rare sets  of circumstances unique to how this mission uses the processor, cache access  errors could occur, resulting in instructions not being executed properly. This  is what happened on the spacecraft on Nov. 29."Good detective work on understanding why the reset  occurred has yielded a way to prevent it from occurring again," said Mars  Science Laboratory Deputy Project Manager Richard Cook of NASA's Jet Propulsion  Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "The successful resolution of this problem  was the outcome of productive teamwork by engineers at the computer  manufacturer and JPL."The Mars-bound spacecraft performed a brief alignment  activity using its star scanner and sun sensor on Jan. 26. During the alignment  observations, the star scanner detected Mars."Our target is in view," said JPL's Steve Collins,  attitude control subsystem engineer for Mars Science Laboratory's cruise from  Earth to Mars.The spacecraft began normal use of its star tracker and true  celestial navigation this week after its software update.The Mars Science Laboratory mission will use its car-size  rover, Curiosity, to investigate whether the selected region on Mars inside  Gale Crater has offered environmental conditions favorable for supporting  microbial life and favorable for preserving clues about whether life existed.  Curiosity will land on Mars on Aug. 6, 2012, Universal Time and Eastern  Daylight Time (evening of Aug. 5, Pacific Daylight Time).The spacecraft's cruise-stage solar array is producing 704  watts. The telecommunications rates are 1 kilobit per second for uplink and 800  bits per second for downlink. The spacecraft is spinning at 1.97 rotations per  minute.As of 9 a.m. PST (noon EST, or 1700 Universal Time) on Friday,  Feb. 10, the spacecraft will have traveled 127 million miles (205 million  kilometers) of its 352-million-mile (567-million-kilometer) flight to Mars. It  will be moving at about 17,800 miles per hour (28,600 kilometers per hour)  relative to Earth and at about 63,700 mph (102,500 kilometers per hour)  relative to the sun.JPL, a division of  the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Science  Laboratory mission for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington.More  information about Curiosity is online at:http://www.nasa.gov/mslandhttp://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/. You can follow the mission on Facebook at:http://www.facebook.com/marscuriosityand on Twitter at:http://www.twitter.com/marscuriosity.