Resumption of Operations

Last week it was announced that Curiosity would resume surface science operations with its B side computer. Delay in resuming operations was caused by a solar storm directed at Mars on March 6 or around sol 206 (this storm was not directed towards Earth) which forced the mission team to put the rover to sleep to prevent any stray charged particle from the sun from damaging the delicate electronics. Mars' thin atmosphere, a lack of ozone and weak magnetic field means electronics need protection from radiation. Nevertheless, better safe than sorry. We certainly don't want a repeat of sol 200.

Fortunately the storm was less intense than anticipated and Curiosity was woken up the next day on sol 209 for operations. I expected images to be relayed for the first time since sol 200's anomaly during last weekend but the plan was apparently scrubbed for some unknown reason. So far there is nothing new on the ground.

Curiosity uses RAD750 flight computers like these ones. They
are slower than your average laptop (100MHz versus 2000MHz or 2GHz processing
respectively) but the RAD750 is designed for highly radiation environment. Besides
we're not running any video games aboard Curiosity! Credit: BAE systems

Spaceref.com provided new insights into the computer problem in an article dated March 8. Here they say that the side A computer, which is independent of side B and is now being salvaged to serve as a back-up in the future, suffered a memory-corruption event triggered by a stray charged particle(s) that managed to penetrate the shielding. Nevertheless the team is at work to patch things up and maybe introduce software updates to prevent such things from becoming an issue should it occur again.

These computers are tough as mentioned in the article:

As journalist William Harwood of CBS wrote in a CNET article just after the rover landed last August, "The RAD750s also meet lifetime dosage standards that are up to a million times more extreme than those considered fatal for a human being. As a result, over a 15-year period, the RAD750 chips aboard Curiosity would not be expected to suffer more than one external event requiring intervention from Earth. 

"The RAD750 card is designed to accommodate all those single event effects and survive them," Vic Scuderi, BAE business manager for satellite electronics, said in an interview with Harwood. "The ultimate goal is one upset is allowed in 15 years. An upset means an intervention from Earth - one 'blue screen of death' in 15 years. We typically have contracts that (specify) that."

The blue screen of death is well known amongst Windows users. But so far we aren't there... yet. Should B side wink out and side A is unavailable, it may be curtains for our big girl.

Tomorrow there will be a televised press conference about updates from Curiosity. I expect it will be about data from the analytical labs SAM and CheMin which managed to analyse a bit of core sampling before sol 200's fiasco. Hopefully there will be some good news if not brilliant news. The conference will take place at 1700hrs GMT or 1pm EDT Tuesday 12 March, 2013. You can watch it via NASAtv online or ustream. Brief details are here. It is now sol 212, half past twelve midday at Curiosity's locality. Stay tuned!