Software update may extend Mars rover’s useful life
JAN 05, 2015
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.028535
NPR : Roaming the surface of Mars since 2004, the Opportunity rover has set a record for having traveled the greatest distance—more than 40 km—of any space-exploration vehicle across the surface of another planet or celestial body. However, Opportunity is beginning to show signs of aging: One of its seven nonvolatile memory banks has developed a fault and data are being lost. To keep the rover going a little longer, NASA is working to reprogram Opportunity to ignore the seventh memory bank and use only the six working ones. The agency hopes to complete the hack in the next couple of weeks.
© 2015 American Institute of Physics
