NASA Fixes Computer Glitch On Mars Science Laboratory

摘要

Engineers have fixed the glitch that caused a computer reset on the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) spacecraft shortly after it launched toward Mars in November, NASA officials announced Feb. 9. The reset occurred Nov. 29 - three days after MSL blasted off from Florida atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket - while the spacecraft was using its star scanner, a navigational tool. NASA engineers determined that the glitch was caused by a previously unknown idiosyncrasy in the memory management unit of the spacecraft's computer processor. Researchers reconfigured a test computer on Earth, and the reset did not recur after billions of runs. The mission team then made the software change on the spacecraft's computer the last week of January and confirmed the week of Feb. 6 that the update was successful, NASA officials said.