Wants to avoid seeing Martians
Computer boffins running NASA's Mars Reconnaissance
Orbiter have stuck the on-board PC into safe mode for the next two weeks while
they try to find out what is going wrong with the machine.
Technicians have had to switch the machine of and switch
it on again three times in the last year and watched in horror as it
inexplicably switched to a backup computer last month in a different
malfunction. NASA launched the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter toward the
red planet in 2005. It is the most powerful orbiter ever sent to Mars and has
beamed home more data and images than all other missions to the red planet
combined.
However it seems also one of the more prone to computer
errors. During analysis of the four safe-mode events, NASA engineers have
identified a vulnerability of the spacecraft's program. They are currently
developing added protection to eliminate this vulnerability while they continue
analysis of the string of incidents. To be fair the orbiter completed its primary mission in
late 2008 and is currently in the middle of an extended mission that runs
through mid-2010.
While the machine is switched off we guess that Martians can
come out and sunbathe.