14 DAY TRIAL // On Wednesday night, the main computer on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) unexpectedly rebooted, under the puzzled faces of mission controllers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), in Pasadena, California. At 9:10 pm EDT (01:10 June 4 GMT), the craft rebooted and entered 'safe mode,' a state that allows engineers to diagnostic it without the craft itself having to make any maneuvers. This is the sixth time the craft enters this mode, which allows it to send readings back to Earth, when its sensitive electronic sensors discover a problem that cannot be addressed with internal protocols.
“The flight team is cautiously bringing the orbiter back to normal operations. We should be resuming our exploration of Mars by next week,” said on Thursday in a statement the JPL orbiter project manager Jim Erickson, Space informs. The agency official added that, other than the reboot, there was nothing wrong with the MRO, which was lately engaged in efforts to rescue the trapped rover Spirit, currently up to its hubcaps in soft, sandy soil.
At this point, following preliminary analysis conclusions, it would look like the orbiter has experienced the same type of glitch that prompted it to reboot its system on February 23. Since then, it has been established that the malfunction was produced by an erroneous power reading, as the craft was hit by cosmic rays. They must have hampered the functioning of some of the most delicate electronics on the MRO, and forced the computer to reboot even though the alarm was bogus.
If this is indeed the case this time too, and the craft was only hit by cosmic rays, then JPL experts hope that the machine will be restored to full operating capacity in a very short time. The MRO launched for Mars in 2005, and the $720 million device was scheduled to remain in orbit until 2008.
As the time for de-orbiting passed, NASA managers decided to extend the program until at least 2010, given the good shape the craft is in. It would appear that many a craft that NASA builds are more resistant than their creators credit them to be, as evidenced by the MRO, and the twin rovers, Spirit and Opportunity - they have been roaming the Red Planet since 2004.