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Glitch Forces Mars Probe Shut-Off

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the your-tax-dollars-at-work dept.

TheEvilOverlord writes to tell us that BBC News is reporting that a 'glitch' has forced the mars probe to switch into a "safe-mode" switching several of its systems off. Perhaps it is just an education tool to show martians the meaning of BSOD.

6 of 158 comments (clear)

  1. "The" Mars Probe? by rk · · Score: 5, Informative

    People, we've got be a little more precise. There are three functioning spacecraft in orbit, one more on the way, and two on the ground on and around Mars. Between NASA and the ESA, it's getting crowded on Mars.

    For those who didn't RTFA, it's the Mars Global Surveyor, which is the oldest of those in orbit.

  2. Re:Nasa? by sounddesignz · · Score: 4, Informative

    http://www.fastcompany.com/online/06/writestuff.ht ml well, TFA is about the space shuttle, but i'd guess it applies to other space gadgets, too. "Consider these stats : the last three versions of the program -- each 420,000 lines long-had just one error each. The last 11 versions of this software had a total of 17 errors. Commercial programs of equivalent complexity would have 5,000 errors."

  3. Re:What sort of software is this probe running? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Mars rovers use WindRiver VxWorks, probably version 5... who needs a BSOD when you have this little favorite "workQPanic: Kernel work queue overflow"... ugh.

    check out http://acmqueue.com/modules.php?name=Content&pa=sh owpage&pid=227 , to be fair, these guys go above and beyond to try and prevent glitches and random crappola.

    -j

  4. Isn't the first time by richdun · · Score: 4, Informative

    Apparently this probe (the Mars Global Surveyor) went into "safe mode" before in its mission.

    http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mgs/status/wkreport/curre nt.html

  5. Re:Relevant glitches. by srleffler · · Score: 4, Informative

    But only limited communications. The primary channel, which allows high bandwidth communications, is more fussy to maintain (antenna has to be pointed in the right direction, etc.) In 'safe mode' the probe uses a secondary communications method that is more reliable but much lower bandwidth.

  6. Re:Relevant glitches. by srleffler · · Score: 4, Informative
    They did. From TFA, in safe mode "[t]he spacecraft...communicates with Earth on its low-gain antenna only." The low-gain antenna is there as a backup communications channel for 'safe mode'.

    You missed the point: 'safe mode' is the fallback system. The probe is not in a 'known state'. They do not yet know what fault caused the probe to go into safe mode. Safe mode is a generic state designed to maintain power and communications with Earth when an unknown fault has occurred, to give the operators time to find a solution or just to check that everything is OK. When they are sure everything is OK they will send a command to exit safe mode.

    There is reason to be cautious. An important satellite was lost a few years ago because the operators rushed their diagnosis of the problem. The satellite's operating state was not what they thought it was--two of the gyros had failed. The operators misinterpreted the data and switched the satellite from its last working gyro to one of the nonworking ones, resulting in total loss of communications and destruction of the satellite. Not good. Before they do anything, they need to be sure they understand what has happened and what state the probe is in.