Fwd: Curiosity Team Upgrades Software, Checks Wheel Wear

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From: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Date: December 21, 2013 8:21:03 PM CST
To: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Subject: FW: Curiosity Team Upgrades Software, Checks Wheel Wear

 

 

Curiosity Team Upgrades Software, Checks Wheel Wear

 

 

NASA's Mars rover Curiosity captured this 360-degree view using its Navigation Camera (Navcam) after a 17-foot (5.3 meter) drive on 477th Martian day, or sol, of the rover's work on Mars (Dec. 8, 2013). Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
› Full image and caption

 

December 20, 2013

Mars Science Laboratory Mission Status Report

The team operating NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has completed a software upgrade on the vehicle and is next planning a check of wear and tear on the rover's wheels.

"Curiosity is now operating on version 11 of its flight software," said Jim Erickson of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, project manager for the NASA Mars Science Laboratory Project, which operates Curiosity.

This is the third upgrade version since Curiosity's landing on Mars16 months ago. Completing the switch from version 10 took about a week. An earlier switch to version 11 prompted an unintended reboot on Nov. 7 and a return to version 10, but the latest transition went smoothly.

These upgrades allow continued advances in the rover's capabilities. For example, version 11 brings expanded capability for using the Curiosity's robotic arm while the vehicle is on slopes. It also improves flexibility for storing information overnight to use in resuming autonomous driving on a second day.

An upcoming activity will be driving to a relatively smooth patch of ground to take a set of images of Curiosity's aluminum wheels, using the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) camera at the end of the rover's arm.

"We want to take a full inventory of the condition of the wheels," Erickson said. "Dents and holes were anticipated, but the amount of wear appears to have accelerated in the past month or so. It appears to be correlated with driving over rougher terrain. The wheels can sustain significant damage without impairing the rover's ability to drive. However, we would like to understand the impact that this terrain type has on the wheels, to help with planning future drives."

Curiosity's recent driving has crossed an area that has numerous sharp rocks embedded in the ground. Routes to future destinations for the mission may be charted to lessen the amount of travel over such rough terrain, compared to smoother ground nearby.

NASA's Mars Science Laboratory Project is using Curiosity inside Gale Crater to assess ancient habitable environments and major changes in Martian environmental conditions. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, built the rover and manages the project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

More information about Curiosity is online at http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/msl, http://www.nasa.gov/msl and http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/ . You can follow the mission on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/marscuriosity and on Twitter at: http://www.twitter.com/marscuriosity .

Guy Webster 818-354-6278
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
guy.webster@jpl.nasa.gov

2013-374

 

 

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Mars rover Curiosity gets software upgrade, improved capabilities

Dec. 20, 2013 at 6:34 PM         

 

Credit: NASA

PASADENA, Calif., Dec. 20 (UPI) -- NASA says its Mars rover Curiosity has had a technology "tuneup," a software upgrade that will advance the rover's capabilities.

"Curiosity is now operating on version 11 of its flight software," Jim Erickson of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., reported Friday.

The upgrade is the third since Curiosity's landing on Mars 16 months ago, with the switch from version 10 taking about a week. An earlier switch to version 11 resulted in an unintended reboot Nov. 7 and a return to version 10, but the latest transition went smoothly, JPL scientists said.

Improvements in version 11 include expanded capability for using the Curiosity's robotic arm while the vehicle is on slopes, and better flexibility for storing information overnight to use in resuming autonomous driving on a second day, they said.

The next "tuneup" activity for the rover will be an examination of its aluminum wheels using a camera at the end of its robotic arm, Erickson said.

"We want to take a full inventory of the condition of the wheels," Erickson said. "Dents and holes were anticipated, but the amount of wear appears to have accelerated in the past month or so. It appears to be correlated with driving over rougher terrain."

Curiosity's recent movements have taken it over ground embedded with sharp rocks.

"The wheels can sustain significant damage without impairing the rover's ability to drive," Erickson said. "However, we would like to understand the impact that this terrain type has on the wheels, to help with planning future drives."

© 2013 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 

 

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Rugged Martian Terrain Chewing Up Curiosity Rover's Wheels

By Mike Wall, Senior Writer   |   December 20, 2013 02:55pm ET

he left-front wheel of NASA's Curiosity Mars rover shows dents and holes in this image taken during the 469th Martian day, or sol, of the rover's work on Mars (Nov. 30, 2013). Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS View full size image

Engineers are gearing up to perform a check of the Mars rover Curiosity's six wheels, which have accumulated a lot of wear and tear during the robot's 16 months on the Red Planet.

In the near future, the mission team plans to drive NASA's 1-ton Curiosity rover to a smooth patch of ground and photograph its six aluminum wheels using the robot's arm-mounted Mars Hand Lens Imager camera (MAHLI), oficials said.

"We want to take a full inventory of the condition of the wheels," Curiosity project manager Jim Erickson, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., said in a statement today (Dec. 20).

"Dents and holes were anticipated, but the amount of wear appears to have accelerated in the past month or so," Erickson added. "It appears to be correlated with driving over rougher terrain. The wheels can sustain significant damage without impairing the rover's ability to drive. However, we would like to understand the impact that this terrain type has on the wheels, to help with planning future drives."

 

 

 

Routes to future destinations may prioritize reducing the time Curiosity spends trundling over sharp rocks and other rough terrain, mission officials added.

Engineers also just finished upgrading the rover's software, marking the third such installation peformed since Curiosity touched down inside Mars' huge Gale Crater in August 2012.

Among other features, this latest version improves Curiosity's ability to use its robotic arm while on slopes, mission team members said. This skill should come in handy when the rover reaches the base of Mount Sharp, which rises 3.4 miles (5.5 kilometers) into the Martian sky from Gale Crater's center.

Mount Sharp has long been Curiosity's main destination. Mission scientists want the rover to climb up through the mountain's foothills, reading the history of Mars' changing environmental conditions as it goes.

The chief goal of Curiosity's $2.5 billion mission is to determine if Mars has ever been capable of supporting microbial life. Mission scientists have already answered that question in the affirmative, finding that a spot near Curiosity's landing site called Yellowknife Bay was indeed habitable billions of years ago.

Curiosity departed Yellowknife Bay for Mount Sharp in July. It should reach the mountain's base around the middle of next year, officials have said.

 

 

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