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Mars Curiosity Rover Experiences Short Circuit, Will Be Stationary For Days

hypnosec writes: NASA says its Mars Curiosity rover has experienced a transient short circuit. The team has halted all work from the rover temporarily while engineers analyze the situation. Telemetry data received from Curiosity indicated the short circuit, after which the vehicle followed its programmed response, stopping the arm activity underway whenthe irregularity in the electric current happened. Curiosity will stay parked as its engineers analyze the situation and figure out if any damage has been done. NASA says a transient short circuit would have little effect on the rover's operations in some systems, but it could force the team to restrict use of whatever mechanism caused the problem.

1 of 33 comments (clear)

  1. Better get the service manual, then by 50000BTU_barbecue · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Like this

    http://www.amazon.com/NASA-Mar...

    I'm curious myself about Curiosity, any way to get the hardware schematics for this thing? Like the real thing, not just a block diagram. How does it detect a short circuit? Just too much current sensed on this power rail = short? Or is there something more being done to analyze the kind of fault?

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    Mostly random stuff.