Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Update Thread

3488 · Mar 21, 2008

Interesting update.Chloride Salt deposits in Terra Sirenum. http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA10248 <img src="http://sitelife.space.com/ver1.0/Content/images/store/14/11/0ed07816-48ef-4a34-8b77-6de60dc4ed62.Medium.jpg" alt="" />Andrew Brown. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> "I suddenly noticed an anomaly to the left of Io, just off the rim of that world. It was extremely large with respect to the overall size of Io and crescent shaped. It seemed unbelievable that something that big had not been visible before". Linda Morabito on discovering that the Jupiter moon Io was volcanically active. Friday 9th March 1979.http://www.launchphotography.com/ http://anthmartian.googlepages.com/thisislandearthhttp://web.me.com/meridianijournal </div>

3488 · Apr 18, 2008

MRO SHARAD penetrates Martian South Polar icecap.http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA10375 <img src="http://sitelife.space.com/ver1.0/Content/images/store/12/3/3cc5c338-166a-4feb-930e-5d2623495a74.Medium.jpg" alt="" />Andrew Brown. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> "I suddenly noticed an anomaly to the left of Io, just off the rim of that world. It was extremely large with respect to the overall size of Io and crescent shaped. It seemed unbelievable that something that big had not been visible before". Linda Morabito on discovering that the Jupiter moon Io was volcanically active. Friday 9th March 1979.http://www.launchphotography.com/ http://anthmartian.googlepages.com/thisislandearthhttp://web.me.com/meridianijournal </div>

3488 · Nov 15, 2008

MRO latest Mars Weather Report. Mentions Phoenix Mars Lander end of mission & recent MER A Spirit troubles.Andrew Brown.  <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> "I suddenly noticed an anomaly to the left of Io, just off the rim of that world. It was extremely large with respect to the overall size of Io and crescent shaped. It seemed unbelievable that something that big had not been visible before". Linda Morabito on discovering that the Jupiter moon Io was volcanically active. Friday 9th March 1979.http://www.launchphotography.com/ http://anthmartian.googlepages.com/thisislandearthhttp://web.me.com/meridianijournal </div>

MeteorWayne · Feb 26, 2009

From SDC:NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has suffered an apparent glitch that has left the spacecraft in a protective safe mode and stalled science observations as it circles the red planet, the space agency announced late Wednesday. The malfunction occurred on Monday when the orbiter unexpectedly rebooted its main computer and entered safe mode, an automatic safeguard designed to protect the spacecraft from further damage when it detects a glitch. NASA engineers are reviewing potential causes for the malfunction aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) in the hopes of resuming its science observations of the red planet. "We are going to bring the spacecraft back to normal operations, but we are going to do so in a cautious way, treating this national treasure carefully," said MRO project manager Jim Erickson at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "The process will take at least a few days."The Mars orbiter's malfunction occurred Monday at about 7:25 a.m. EST (1225 GMT), when the spacecraft was flying behind the red planet as seen from Earth. While MRO has suffered glitches that put it in safe mode five times since its 2005 launch, Monday's malfunction does not resemble any of those earlier glitches, NASA officials said. An initial analysis suggests that the malfunction may have been caused by the detection of a power surge that lasted between 200 nanoseconds and 41 seconds. The power surge may have been real, or it could have been a phantom reading, mission managers said. One theory is that the MRO spacecraft may have been hit by a cosmic ray, causing an erroneous power surge reading for about nine microseconds, more than enough time to trigger the computer reboot, mission managers said. MRO flight engineers managed to partially revive the spacecraft late Monday, when they boosted its communication rate from 40 data bits per second to a level some 10,000 times faster. The spacecraft's batteries are charged and its expansive solar wings are generating electricity, mission managers saidhttp://www.space.com/missionlaunches/090226-mars-orbiter-malfunction.html <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> But the Krell forgot one thing John. Monsters. Monsters from the Id. I really, really, really, really miss the "first unread post" function </div>

3488 · Feb 27, 2009

Hi Wayne,

To me it looks like a Cosmic Ray strike. There appear to have been a few recently,both MERs being hit, Cassini not to long ago, DAWN also not so long ago, Mars Express & Mars Odyssey too & now MRO.

It is just me, or is there an increase in these events?

Looks like MRO responded properly & is slowly coming out of safing, so this is a minor set back, not a disaster fortunately.

Andrew Brown.

3488 · Mar 4, 2009

Great News. MRO is fully restored to normal operations.

Andrew Brown.

MeteorWayne · Mar 5, 2009

From SDC:

http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/09 ... eboot.html

NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter, which has been circling the red planet for nearly eight years, needs a risky reboot to address a long-known, potential vulnerability in its memory system.

The Odyssey team plans to perform the operation next week.

The chief concern about the potential memory vulnerability stems from the length of time that the spacecraft has been exposed to the accumulated effects of the space radiation environment since the last reboot, which occurred on Oct. 31, 2003.

As an additional benefit, the cold-reboot procedure will demonstrate whether Odyssey's onboard backup systems will be available should they ever be required.

"We have lost no functionality, but there would be advantages to knowing whether the B side [backup system] is available," said Odyssey Mission Manager Gaylon McSmith of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "We have developed a careful plan for attempting to determine that."

dragon04 · Mar 7, 2009

Voyager(s), MRO, Odyssey, Spirit, Opportunity, Cassini, etc... It's amazing how robust these vehicles ended up being.

That's a 30 year history of consistent excellence and performance in the most hostile of environments.

3488 · Mar 9, 2009

Hi everyone,

First post on my NEW software (technical issues have prevented me posting for the last few days, but I have had my computer completely reloaded with NEW software. Seems to be working well).

See what I was able to help convince the HiRISE team to do?

Note that Deimos is shown upside down with south at top.

Deimos by HiRISE.

.

Andrew Brown.

MeteorWayne · Mar 9, 2009

That's a beauty Andrew!!

3488 · Mar 9, 2009

It is gorgeous Wayne,

I was part of an effort to convince the HiRISE team to get Deimos along with Phobos observed with the HiRISE. I think a while back I had mentioned this effort in progress.

Hopefully some of my reasoning was used in getting these obs. :mrgreen:

Just love it & really get some satisfaction of helping in mankind's exploration of the solar system in some small way.

Notice how Deimos appears less 'reddish' than Phobos at the same wavelengths.

HiRISE entry just updated.

Needless to say, I will be working on some images & crops. I will posting them here.

Andrew Brown.

3488 · Mar 9, 2009

A large image of Deimos from HiRISE that I've just enlarged. Second panel.

.

I will be back with more. Just getting used to my new software.

Andrew Brown.

bobw · Mar 9, 2009

WOW!

We will probably get a new type of landscape in Sci-Fi movies and TV shows soon. I don't remember ever seeing anything like that before!

silylene · Mar 9, 2009

3488":nhaoy879 said:
Hi everyone,

See what I was able to help convince the HiRISE team to do?

Andrew Brown.

Woot !!

3488 · Mar 9, 2009

petet":3h7cr2uk said:
Woot !!

Hi Silylene,

Glad you like it. It took a while for the observations to be made. I submitted the request along with the Phobos observations last year. I guessed the Deimos element had not been thrown out as it had never been rejected & it was stated that it 'was being looked into by the science team', when I followed it up, only in January.

Anyhow a few other images, that I've been working on.

The MRO HiRISE Deimos observations are certainly the finest of the outer & smallest Martian moon since the Viking 2 orbiter observations since October 1977.

Deimos Terminator from HiRISE.

Deimos craters & quite smoothish surface on the terminator from HiRISE.

Deimos, crop & enlargement of small craters & smoothish terrain from HiRISE.

Three KM wide section near the south pole of Deimos.

Andrew Brown.

3488 · Mar 13, 2009

MRO HiRISE has searched the predicted landing site of the lost British Beagle 2 lander.
2 KM wide strip.

A couple more images I have worked on.

Phobos & Deimos by MRO HiRISE.

Deimos first panel.

Just asking, do the images display properly? Sometimes they seem to be chopped from the right.

Andrew Brown.

nimbus · Mar 13, 2009

The forum only shows part of their left side, yes. Very nice pics nonetheless

bobw · Mar 13, 2009

I can only see the left 740 pixels but if I save it to disk it saves the whole picture. I keep my screen resolution at 1024 X 768, not sure if people with wider screen resolutions see more.

Edit: Changed to 1280 X 1024 and see the same thing only the whole forum has borders on the sides.

3488 · Mar 13, 2009

Thank you very much nimbus & bobw.

It seems strange that the forum shows the first 740 or so pixels width, yet if saved, the entire image is saved. So the forum certainly captures the entire image but displays only part of it if large.

I will bear this in mind in future, link to smaller images, but put a url to a large one hosted elsewhere.

Once again thank you both very much for taking the trouble to find out. It's much appreciated.

Andrew Brown.

bobw · Mar 13, 2009

3488":5c1pcu50 said:
Thank you very much nimbus & bobw.

It seems strange that the forum shows the first 740 or so pixels width, yet if saved, the entire image is saved. So the forum certainly captures the entire image but displays only part of it if large.
Andrew Brown.

I think it works out OK this way. We get to see any little enhancements you made. Pluck would have just rescaled the thing and smeared out all your work.

MeteorWayne · Aug 8, 2009

A NASA spacecraft orbiting Mars has inexplicably switched to its backup computer, temporarily stalling science operations until it can be fixed, the space agency said late Friday.

The powerful Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) unexpectedly switched to its redundant Side B computer and subsystems before entering a protective safe mode on Thursday - the third computer glitch this year for the 4-year-old spacecraft, which is currently flying an extended mission.

"The spacecraft is safe, with good temperatures and battery charge and with solar panels properly facing the sun," said the Jim Erickson, the orbiter's project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif. "The flight team is cautiously taking steps to bring it back to normal operations."

The $720 million Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has been circling Mars since 2006 and beamed home more images and data than all other missions to the red planet combined. The spacecraft completed its initial mission in 2008 and is currently in the middle of an extended flight that is slated to end in mid-2010.

Engineers have been able to boost their communication rate with the spacecraft, but believe some engineering data about the exact conditions of the orbiter as the glitch was occurring may be lost forever.

JPL spokesperson Guy Webster said NASA engineers are confident they can revive the spacecraft from its safe mode slumber by Monday or Tuesday if all goes well. The new glitch does not appear to be the same one that afflicted the spacecraft twice before earlier this year, but is similar to something JPL engineers have seen in the past, he said.

"It's different from events in February and June this year when MRO spontaneously rebooted, but stayed on same 'side,'" Webster told SPACE.com in an update.

In February and June, the orbiter unexpected rebooted its Side A computer, sending it into safe mode while engineers on Earth worked to revive the spacecraft over several days. Engineers attributed those glitches to hits from a stray cosmic ray or solar particle.

Safe mode is a self-defense mechanism that allows a spacecraft to shut down and await instructions from Earth when it encounters a situation that its onboard autonomous functions has no response for, mission managers have said.

The orbiter has entered safe mode a total of seven times since its launch in 2005. On two of those occasions, it switched to its backup computer, mission managers said.

http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/09 ... vived.html

3488 · Aug 12, 2009

MRO seems to be back up & operating well. With such a sophisticated craft, I'm only surprised that this does not happen more often.

It looks like MRO is still operating on the B Side.

MRO spies Victoria Crater from an oblique angle.

False colour view. East is top, North is left.

Andrew Brown.

CalliArcale · Aug 13, 2009

Hey, there's totally evidence of artificiality in that picture! Straight lines all over to the left of the crater!

Rover tracks. Awesome. I know MRO has imaged rover tracks before, and even the rovers themselves in mind-boggling detail, but it's still always cool to spot traces of human activity on other worlds. There are so few of them....

MeteorWayne · Aug 27, 2009

More Bad Week in Space:

NASA's powerful Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter entered a protective slumber Wednesday - the fourth time this year - after inexplicably rebooting its main computer yet again.

The anomaly popped up early Wednesday as the 4-year-old orbiter circled Mars, marking the third spontaneous computer reboot for the spacecraft this year. In a fourth glitch, which occurred earlier this month, the orbiter switched to its backup computer unexpectedly.

"We hope to gain a better understanding of what is triggering these events and then have the spacecraft safely resume its study of Mars by next week," said Jim Erickson, the spacecraft's project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., in a statement.

Currently, the $720 million spacecraft is in a protective safe mode awaiting instructions from Earth and is in communications with its mission control team, NASA officials said.

http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/09 ... litch.html

3488 · Aug 28, 2009

Thanks Wayne,

This appears to be becoming more frequent with MRO. In fact I am a little concerned that the ageing computer chips are becoming more vulnerable to cosmic ray strikes, etc. When solar activity eventually waxes after this long minimum, MRO could see these events for more frequently.

Mars has no global magnetosphere to protect craft in LMO (Low Mars Orbit), so really MRO is as vulnerable as craft in interplanetary space.

I am hoping that I am wrong, but I think the reality is that MRO is slowly approaching the end of it's mission. When MRO has recovered from this event, engineers are really going to have to look at the software & see if any vulnerable computer boards & other hardware can be identified & perhaps bypassed.

Amdrew Brown.

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