Mars Curiosity Rover Experiences Short Circuit, Will Be Stationary For Days

hypnosec writes: NASA says its Mars Curiosity rover has experienced a transient short circuit. The team has halted all work from the rover temporarily while engineers analyze the situation. Telemetry data received from Curiosity indicated the short circuit, after which the vehicle followed its programmed response, stopping the arm activity underway whenthe irregularity in the electric current happened. Curiosity will stay parked as its engineers analyze the situation and figure out if any damage has been done. NASA says a transient short circuit would have little effect on the rover's operations in some systems, but it could force the team to restrict use of whatever mechanism caused the problem.

LOL ... Spring break ...

[gstoddart]

A spokesman for Curiosity said it would be taking some well deserved downtime, basking in the sunshine, and streaming "Rovers Gone Wild" videos.

The spokesman also added Curiosity is long overdue for a vacation in the Martian Riviera.

NASA officials were unavailable for comment on how Curiosity seems to have gotten a bottle of Wild Turkey, a keg, and a beer bong.

Johnny 5

[Anonymous Coward]

is alive

Re:

[bobbied]

NASA officials were unavailable for comment on how Curiosity seems to have gotten a bottle of Wild Turkey, a keg, and a beer bong.

They obviously got smuggled onto the launch behind the back-shell by Neal Armstrong...

Re:

[Brett Buck]

"He got so wasted he SHORTED OUT!!. I want to party with that dude!"

"SPRING BREAK, YEAH!!!!"[/frat boy]

Better get the service manual, then

[50000BTU_barbecue]

Like this

http://www.amazon.com/NASA-Mar... [amazon.com]

I'm curious myself about Curiosity, any way to get the hardware schematics for this thing? Like the real thing, not just a block diagram. How does it detect a short circuit? Just too much current sensed on this power rail = short? Or is there something more being done to analyze the kind of fault?

Re:Better get the service manual, then

[cdrudge]

I definitely wouldn't get the Haynes manual. It covers 16 model years and it's just going to be very generic drawings of the circuits that are pretty obvious anyways. Plus half the photos are just going to be stock photos that may or may not have come from an actual rover tear down. Some may be from a lunar rover...a few probably will be from Voyager or Pioneer too. The spark plug diagnosis photos though will be useful in determining if it's running rich or improperly gapped or physically damaged. Or completely missing.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

And all re-assembly sections following a 5-page teardown will read "Re-assembly is the reverse of removal."

Re:Better get the service manual, then

[bobbied]

And all re-assembly sections following a 5-page teardown will read "Re-assembly is the reverse of removal."

Yea, but any disassembly that starts with "Retrieve Rover and place on jack stands with the emergency break set" is going to be impossible from the get go..

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[Anonymous Coward]

Especially since I have no idea what an "emergency break" is...

Re:

[tlhIngan]

Insightful, really? I think a few mods must've missed a "whoosh" somewhere.

Either that or they haven't seen how modern Haynes books have reinvented themselves given their old business pretty much evaporated once the 90s hit. (Yes, I remember the shelves of Haynes books back in the day and the modern internet has pretty much killed that business.)

Yeah, so it's a bit more complex than just a power supply sequencer and simple "power good" monitor? It's actually recording "telemetry" off its own power supply co

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

Hardware schematics would be "technical data" for a defense article listed in category XV of the US Munitions List, and subject to ITAR: export controlled. So, first off, you'd need to be a U.S. Person (e.g. US citizen or legal permanent resident, not working for a foreign company).

Practically speaking, though, a lot of the documentation is proprietary to the manufacturer. If you buy a PC motherboard as an end user, you generally don't get the schematics, but if you're an integrator, you might, under some

Re:

[50000BTU_barbecue]

OK, thanks.

Yeah, so it's a bit more complex than just a power supply sequencer and simple "power good" monitor? It's actually recording "telemetry" off its own power supply continuously, then they correlate the data later?

But can they turn off a power supply and take a resistance reading, for example? Or how about varying the voltage while monitoring the current?

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[bobbied]

They WHERE the lowest bidder...

Re:

[Ashenkase]

Actually they were the lowest bidder.

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[bobbied]

Pesky spelling thing... I took up engineering because I was horrid at spelling.....

Re:

[wiredlogic]

No. This is all export controlled technology.

So what

[Anonymous Coward]

My homemade H-Bridge short circuited as well. It didn't make headlines.

Re:

[halivar]

Are you volunteering to go swap out the parts? You're the expert, after all.

Re:

[bev_tech_rob]

Any hot-rodder would mod parent funny!

That picture...

[JD-1027]

I hate "selfies" (ugh, that word), but that is a selfie a robot took with hills on *Mars* in the background
That is truly amazing.

Short Circuit?

[Anonymous Coward]

So it became alive? Number 5 is alive!. You don't want robots having short circuits. Next thing you know they are dancing and saying, Beautiful Stephanie! and running from the authorities.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

Stephanie look different?

Nice Software!

Number 5

[Nite_Hawk]

Mr. Five, Mr. Five, how do you feel?

How do I feel? I feel... ALIVE!

Re:

[bobbied]

Maybe it's just wearing out from use? You can only bend something so many times, especially when it's really cold like it is on Mars...