Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

NASA Remotely Hacks Curiosity's Rock Drill

posted by Fnord666 on Sunday May 27 2018, @04:59PM   Printer-friendly
from the boring-news dept.

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard

We have a lot of respect for the hackers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). When their stuff has a problem, it is often millions of miles away and yet they often find a way to fix it anyway. Case in point is the Curiosity Mars rover. Back in 2016, the probe's rock drill broke. This is critical because one of the main things the rover does is drill into rock samples, collect the powder and subject it to analysis. JPL announced they had devised a way to successfully drill again.

The drill failed after fifteen uses. It uses two stabilizers to steady itself against the target rock. A failed motor prevents the drill bit from retracting and extending between the stabilizers. Of course, sending a repair tech 60 million miles is not in the budget, so they had to find another way. You can see a video about the way they found, below.

Source: https://hackaday.com/2018/05/25/nasa-remotely-hacks-curiositys-rock-drill/

Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
NASA Remotely Hacks Curiosity's Rock Drill | Log In/Create an Account | Top | 16 comments | Search Discussion
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.

  • (Score: 3, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 27 2018, @07:26PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 27 2018, @07:26PM (#684887)

    The phrase "made to detect if the arm strikes something" is misleading. In robotics all sensors are polled constantly and it's the interrupt handling...

    Thank you captain obvious. Before you stepped in to enlighten us we were all fooled and thought NASA remotely modified the electric properties of the sensor by moving atoms using magic rays and duct tape. But thanks to you, we now know they rewrote a routine.

    I am an employee of Boston Dynamics, so I know a thing or two about robots, especially gay Jewish ones.

    Keep your sex life to yourself. And tell your little Jewish robo-boyfriend they can do better.

    Starting Score:    0  points
    Moderation   +3  
       Touché=3, Total=3
    Extra 'Touché' Modifier   0  
    Total Score:   3