NASA turns on second set of ‘brains’ from Mars rover Curiosity

Curiosity may have had enough by now. The NASA rover has been driving through the sand on the red planet for years and recently it turned out that the cart no longer transmits part of the data. To solve that, NASA has now temporarily turned on the backup computer.

NASA has given Curiosity, which was launched in November 2011, two computers, which the space agency also refers to as the ‘brain’ of the rover. Side B is the computer that was active, but it has been struggling with a memory problem since September 15th. That’s why now switched to the Side A computer, which according to NASA means that the events and data can be saved again.

According to the organization, Curiosity will likely become fully operational again, but there is no word yet on when that will be. Side A will go live on Thursday, but Steven Lee of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory reports that it may take some time for NASA engineers to fully understand the root of the problem and come up with workarounds for Side B’s memory. The aim is to fall back to Side B once all the problems have been resolved.

The rover still sends data stored in short-term memory and can also receive commands, but it can no longer store scientific data in its long-term memory. That also prevents Curiosity from keeping a log of all events. That log is necessary for technicians to make a diagnosis.

This is not the first time that the active computer has been switched. Side A also experienced hardware and software problems over five years ago. Curiosity was then no longer controllable with commands, which drained the battery. It was then successfully switched to Side B. Technicians at the time quarantined part of Side A’s memory; that made this computer suitable for possible use again.

NASA also has another rover on Mars, the Opportunity. From June 10, it ended up in a huge dust storm that ravaged the entire planet. As a result, the rover could no longer absorb the sun’s rays for the power supply and lost contact with the earth. Opportunity could no longer charge its battery and therefore ended up in a kind of sleep mode. The rover has since been located back on Mars, but it has not yet made an appearance. In any case, NASA will continue to try to make contact until the beginning of 2019. It is also unclear how much dust ended up on the solar panels.