New Mars Forums

Grypd

Member

From: Scotland, Europe

Registered: 2004-06-07

Posts: 1,879

Re: Mars Global surveyor in trouble

The Mars Global surveyor has had a major computer failure and has shut down to safe mode. The main computer is not functioning and the secondary has not the capacity to carry the mission on.

BBC Article

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Chan eil mi aig a bheil ùidh ann an gleidheadh an status quo; Tha mi airson cur às e.

C M Edwards

Member

From: Lake Charles LA USA

Registered: 2002-04-29

Posts: 1,012

Re: Mars Global surveyor in trouble

On 30 July, the main onboard processing computer unexpectedly switched to its back-up computer. Then, on 26 August, the back-up computer switched back to the primary computer, which had been re-booted in the meantime.

"[The primary computer] was left in its safe mode. It was powered, but when the back-up computer switched back to it, the whole spacecraft went into safe mode," Thomas Thorpe, MGS project manager from Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, told the BBC News website.

Mr Thorpe said that both computers had now been re-booted and that the back-up computer had come out of safe mode into the less drastic contingency mode.

Oh sure, my home computer does that all the time!      Seriously, though, I am humbled by the number of recent missions where a simple re-boot has saved the day.  "RESTART.COM - Never leave Earth without it."

Hopefully, they'll get Global Surveyor up and running again.  I'm going to miss those excellent MOC images if they don't.

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"We go big, or we don't go."  - GCNRevenger

Palomar

Member

From: USA

Registered: 2002-05-30

Posts: 9,734

Re: Mars Global surveyor in trouble

Hopefully, they'll get Global Surveyor up and running again.  I'm going to miss those excellent MOC images if they don't.

*Indeed. 

Saw this thread last night but didn't know quite what to say except "oh no" and "please come round."

Will keep my fingers crossed and an eye on the news.

--Cindy

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We all know [i]those[/i] Venusians: Doing their hair in shock waves, smoking electrical coronas, wearing Van Allen belts and resting their tiny elbows on a Geiger counter...

--John Sladek (The New Apocrypha)

SpaceNut

Administrator

From: New Hampshire

Registered: 2004-07-22

Posts: 28,913

Re: Mars Global surveyor in trouble

I am wondering if the problem is simular to ones that the rovers initially experienced upon arriving. Where the file system had to many files stored to which need to have a code rewrite to allow it to re-use that data area?