MGS in Trouble, Formerly: MGS in safe mode |
MGS in Trouble, Formerly: MGS in safe mode |
Guest_Analyst_* |
Nov 8 2006, 11:50 AM
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#1
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Guests |
Did nobody notice this:
Ground Team Stays Busy on 10th Anniversary of NASA Mars Launch Ten year after launch, there is some trouble with a solar array motor and a comm problem probably resulting from this and entering safe mode. Nothing dramatic yet, but something to follow closely. There are other things than MRO and MER Analyst |
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Nov 14 2006, 03:34 PM
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#2
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Founder Group: Chairman Posts: 14434 Joined: 8-February 04 Member No.: 1 |
The thinking behind it is probably like this :
We are sending X-Band signals, but we do not know if it is getting them as we see no evidence in return Most likely option - the vehicle is incapacitated and/or not recieving the signals. Less likely - the vehicle is recieving them but for some reason can not transmit on X-Band In the second case - if we uplink a command to transmit on UHF which Spirit/Opportunity might hear, then we will have evidence of life onboard MGS. Basically, you start at the top of the fault tree and cross out all the different failure options until you've crossed them all out....at which point you go out, have a drink, toast MGS, and then move on. Anyone who followed the MPL post-landing story will have been through this...it's painful, as you get to the increasingly unlikely failure modes, but on which you end up pinning more and more of your hopes. Doug |
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Nov 14 2006, 04:14 PM
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#3
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Senior Member Group: Admin Posts: 4763 Joined: 15-March 05 From: Glendale, AZ Member No.: 197 |
Anyone who followed the MPL post-landing story will have been through this... ....that was excruciating. I never want to go through that again. -------------------- If Occam had heard my theory, things would be very different now.
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Nov 14 2006, 04:33 PM
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#4
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Member Group: Members Posts: 311 Joined: 31-August 05 From: Florida & Texas, USA Member No.: 482 |
....that was excruciating. I never want to go through that again. Yeah, like with Beagle... It's so easy to take orbiters for granted, but it really shows what a knife edge dance it is to keep power and communications and camera orientation all working without a hitch. On an quasi-unrelated note, I wonder how much it would cost to build some redundancy into the DSN. Every blue moon, there seems to be some mission-impacting loss of communication - either a mouse has chewed through a cable, or a space probe goes on the fritz during the comm window for another mission, etc... it almost seems like an achillies heel that one day could really cause a major loss of data. Maybe it's time to build some extra nodes, like in Iceland and/or south Argentina or something? |
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Nov 14 2006, 04:37 PM
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#5
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The Poet Dude Group: Moderator Posts: 5551 Joined: 15-March 04 From: Kendal, Cumbria, UK Member No.: 60 |
Yeah, like with Beagle... Oh, that was a horrible, dragging, endless, check-Ceefax-and-websites-every-five-minutes Christmas Day.... ((shudders at the memory))... -------------------- |
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