[meteorite-list] MRO Team Returning Mars Orbiter to Duty After Computer Swap

[Ron Baalke]

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4537

Team Returning Orbiter to Duty After Computer Swap
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
April 2, 2015

Mission Status Report

NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, at Mars since 2006, made an unplanned 
switch on Wednesday from one main computer to a redundant one onboard, 
triggering a hiatus in planned activities.

Sensing the computer swap, the orbiter put itself into a precautionary 
safe standby mode. It remained healthy, in communication and fully powered. 
The mission's operations team expects the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter 
to resume full duty within a few days, including communication relays 
and science observations.

The orbiter has experienced this type of unplanned computer swap six times 
previously, starting in 2007 and including two occasions in 2014.

"We never quite know when it's going to happen, but we know what to do 
when it does," said Reid Thomas, mission manager for Mars Reconnaissance 
Orbiter at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California.

Shifts between the spacecraft's redundant "Side A" and "Side B" main computers 
leave a clear signature that enables the team to quickly diagnose what 
happened and send commands beginning the process of restoring the orbiter 
to full operations. The latest swap put the spacecraft onto the Side B 
computer.

NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter entered orbit around the Red Planet 
on March 10, 2006. Since then, it has returned more data than all other 
past and current interplanetary missions combined, with a current tally 
of 249 terabits.

The mission met all its science goals in a two-year primary science phase. 
Four extensions, the latest beginning in 2014, have added to the science 
returns. The longevity of the mission has given researchers tools to study 
seasonal and longer-term changes on the Mars. Among other current activities, 
the orbiter is examining possible landing sites for future missions to 
Mars and relaying communications to Earth from NASA's two active Mars 
rovers.

JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, manages 
the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, 
Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, built the orbiter and 
collaborates with JPL to operate it. For more information about the Mars 
Reconnaissance Orbiter, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/mro

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mro/ .


Media Contact

Guy Webster 818-354-6278
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
guy.webster at jpl.nasa.gov 

2015-114