NASA's Curiosity Rover Recovers From Glitch on Mars (space.com) 27
NASA's Mars rover Curiosity "lost its orientation...partway through its last set of activities," reported a planetary geologist on the rover's team Monday.
Curiosity had lost track of its position in space and the position of its various parts like its robotic arm. "Thus, Curiosity stopped moving, freezing in place until its knowledge of its orientation can be recovered. Curiosity kept sending us information, so we know what happened and can develop a recovery plan...."
Space.com now shares the rest of the story:
"We learned this morning that plan was successful and Curiosity was ready for science once more!" mission team member Scott Guzewich, an atmospheric scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, wrote in another update on Tuesday. This latest recovery shouldn't come as a shock; Curiosity has overcome numerous setbacks since landing inside Mars' 96-mile-wide (154 kilometers) Gale Crater in August 2012. The rover has had issues with its memory and its wheels, for example, but has always bounced back...
Curiosity is now climbing the foothills of Mount Sharp, the 3.4-mile-high (5.5 km) mountain that rises from Gale Crater's center. The rover is reading the rocks for clues about Mars' long-ago climate transition, which turned the Red Planet from a relatively warm and wet place to the cold desert world it is today.
CNET notes that Curiosity is currently NASA's only working rover on Mars.
Curiosity had lost track of its position in space and the position of its various parts like its robotic arm. "Thus, Curiosity stopped moving, freezing in place until its knowledge of its orientation can be recovered. Curiosity kept sending us information, so we know what happened and can develop a recovery plan...."
Space.com now shares the rest of the story:
"We learned this morning that plan was successful and Curiosity was ready for science once more!" mission team member Scott Guzewich, an atmospheric scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, wrote in another update on Tuesday. This latest recovery shouldn't come as a shock; Curiosity has overcome numerous setbacks since landing inside Mars' 96-mile-wide (154 kilometers) Gale Crater in August 2012. The rover has had issues with its memory and its wheels, for example, but has always bounced back...
Curiosity is now climbing the foothills of Mount Sharp, the 3.4-mile-high (5.5 km) mountain that rises from Gale Crater's center. The rover is reading the rocks for clues about Mars' long-ago climate transition, which turned the Red Planet from a relatively warm and wet place to the cold desert world it is today.
CNET notes that Curiosity is currently NASA's only working rover on Mars.
Now where'd I put the remote... (Score:5, Insightful)
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Haha, yeah... debugging. They probably just rebooted it.
Re: Now where'd I put the remote... (Score:3, Insightful)
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What is a "188 million miles"? We don't understand your system of measurement of distance. Why can't Americans use furlongs to measure distance like everyone else?
Re: Now where'd I put the remote... (Score:1)
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Why can't Americans use furlongs to measure distance like everyone else?
Just like they do in England?
Re: Now where'd I put the remote... (Score:1)
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Better off red planet than dead planet
Dupes, dupes, dupes .... (Score:1)
It is a daily occurrence now: one editor posts something, the next day (or the same day) the same story gets posted again.
Yesterday: Mars Rover Temporarily Froze In Place Following Software Error [slashdot.org].
Today: NASA's Curiosity Rover Recovers From Glitch on Mars [slashdot.org]
Can the editors please check the front page before they approve stories? Is it too much to ask that editors actually do some editing?
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Not a valid call of "DUPE!" there. Yesterday it fumbled, today Space Force recovers.
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The Space Force is making Mars Great Again.
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There are plenty of dupes to whine about, this really isn't one.
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Even the fucking HEADLINES show they are different stories about the same subject. One is about its failure, the other about its recovery.
Time to leave the internet, old man.
Easy enough fix ... (Score:2)
Curiosity had lost track of its position in space ...
Just point Curiosity's camera at the information booth:
You are here ---------> O [Mars]
That's almost human. (Score:1)
I recently had a mountain bike crash where I rolled over over the edge of a ledge and fell about five feet onto my back. I wear a hydration backpack with motocross style spine armor, so I walked away without even a bruise, but for a few seconds after I landed I couldn't move at all.
I've noticed that before after a sudden and unexpected shock. Your brain shuts down movement for a couple of seconds until it decides moving won't make things worse.
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Yeah, that's exactly the same thing.
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I actually think it is. Engineers have hit upon the same solution to the unexpected as evolution, which is freeze and take stock. I have a lot of experience in hard contact sports, and the brain's response to any kind unexpected is brief moment of paralysis while it takes stock. You don't get that, say, in a Judo match when someone slams you into the mat, even though the impact is harder.
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I have a lot of experience in hard contact sports
I'll bet.
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More than you get posting to slashdot from your Mom's basement, at any rate.
Rocket Science still hard.. (Score:5, Insightful)
...especially since it's been hand-in-glove with computer science since the computer came along.
My hat's off to the folks who drive this little buggy in the name of Science.
Man, I sweat bullets when I have to reboot an old cranky server and I'm right there next to it... will it come back up? Will it beep at me angrily and tell me to fuck off?
Go, little buggy, go!
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Go, little buggy, go!
NASA announced a contest to name the next rover. I think, obviously, they should name it:
"Eveready Bunny"
So it got a better attitude over night? (Score:2)
Curious.
I guess it got yelled at and its ass chewed.
akshully... (Score:2)
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No, the problem arose because of Curiosity's advancing age. Apparently it responded to an email warning that its Social Security number was about to be "revoked" unless it went online and ordered Target gift cards in the amount of 100,000 Nigerian naira. It was stopped just before it could sign them over to the prince who sent the message.
Alien Jesus (Score:2)