New Horizons' quick trip & recovery from safe mode Options

[Littlebit]

http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/overview/piPerspec...ive_current.php

Since a bad word in C&DH memory could invoke an unpredictable spacecraft action, C&DH is programmed to command itself to reboot (and thus restore memory from a boot PROM) whenever such an double-bit error is detected. But whenever C&DH resets, our onboard autonomous fault-detection and -protection system declares an emergency and commands the spacecraft to suspend all current activities and go to a "Safe Mode."

That sounds like my mother's behavior whenever she hears a bad word.

Is it a coincidence that this occurred while New Horizons was surfing in Pluto's magnetosphere? Has the single bit error count been up since the Jupiter boost? Perhaps Jupiter is a little peeved about the theft of gravitational energy...

[nprev]

Think you meant Jupiter's magnetosphere... ...but I wouldn't be a bit surprised if this was some sort of radiation or cosmic ray event (the latter more likely).

[ustrax]

I particulary enjoyed this paragraph from the PI's Perspective...:

"Onward we go, into the cold, yawning abyss that is the outer solar system, with our eyes, minds and hearts firmly fixed on our goal of a history-making scientific exploration of worlds where no one has gone before!"

Alan Stern really knows how to give a special touch to his updated...

[tuvas]

I'm fairly impressed that this is the first safing event of NH. I know of at least 3 that have happened with MRO and I wouldn't be surprised if there was another one or two that happened before I joined the HiRISE team. Most were recovered in short order (Namely because the instruments were turned off. They actually occurred during aerobraking), but still... Good work NH team!

[ElkGroveDan]

"exploration of worlds where no one has gone before!"

Not only does he sound like a Star Trek fan, it appears he's partial to TNG.