[meteorite-list] Curiosity Rover Performs Warm Reset

[Ron Baalke]

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2013-325

Curiosity Performs Warm Reset
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
November 08, 2013

Mars Science Laboratory Mission Status Report 

NASA's Mars rover Curiosity experienced an unexpected software reboot 
(also known as a warm reset) yesterday (11/7/13) during a communications 
pass as it was sending engineering and science data to the Mars Reconnaissance 
Orbiter, for later downlinking to Earth. This computer reset occurred 
about four-and-half hours after new flight software had been temporarily 
loaded into the rover's memory. At the time the event occurred, Curiosity 
was in the middle of a scheduled, week-long flight software update and 
checkout activity. 

"Telemetry later downlinked from the rover indicates the warm reset was 
performed as would be expected in response to an unanticipated event," 
said Jim Erickson, project manager for the Mars Science Laboratory mission 
at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. 

A warm reset is executed by flight software when it identifies a problem 
with one of its operations. The reset restarts the flight software into 
its initial state. Since the reset, the rover has been performing operations 
and communications as expected. The team is currently working toward understanding 
the cause of the reset and returning the rover to normal operations. This 
is the first time that Curiosity has executed a fault-related warm reset 
during its 16-plus months of Mars surface operations. 

NASA's Mars Science Laboratory Project is using Curiosity to assess whether 
areas inside Gale Crater ever offered a habitable environment for microbes. 
JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, 
manages the project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. 

More information about Curiosity is online at http://www.nasa.gov/msl 
and http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/ . You can follow the mission on Facebook 
at: http://www.facebook.com/marscuriosity and on Twitter at: 
http://www.twitter.com/marscuriosity  .

DC Agle 818-393-9011
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
agle at jpl.nasa.gov

2013-325