Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by Fnord666 on Friday July 31 2020, @06:17PM   Printer-friendly
from the not-nominal dept.

Mars-bound spaceship experiencing technical issues: NASA:

Mars 2020, the spaceship carrying NASA's new rover Perseverance to the Red Planet, is experiencing technical difficulties and is running on essential systems only, the agency said Thursday.

"Data indicate the spacecraft had entered a state known as safe mode, likely because a part of the spacecraft was a little colder than expected while Mars 2020 was in Earth's shadow," NASA said.

The spaceship has left Earth's shadow and the temperatures are now normal.

[...] Matt Wallace, the mission's deputy project manager, said that the fact that the spaceship had entered safe mode was not overly concerning.

"That's perfectly fine, the spacecraft is happy there," he said. "The team is working through that telemetry, they're going to look through the rest of the spacecraft health. "So far, everything I've seen looks good, so we'll know more in a little bit."

Related:
Perseverance, Ingenuity begin seven month journey to Mars
Atlas 5 launches Mars 2020 mission

Previously:
Mars 2020 Rover to Include a Mars Helicopter
Mars Helicopter Enters Final Testing
Mars Mission Readies Tiny Chopper for Red Planet Flight
NASA Reveals the New Wavy Martian Wheels it Thinks Can Crush the Red Planet
Three Missions to Mars Happening this Month


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
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: 2) by Mojibake Tengu on Friday July 31 2020, @06:56PM (8 children)

    by Mojibake Tengu (8598) on Friday July 31 2020, @06:56PM (#1029455) Journal

    a part of the spacecraft was a little colder than expected

    How's that possible? That indicates the thermal profile digital model of of the craft was wrong to begin with.

    --
    Respect Authorities. Know your social status. Woke responsibly.
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 4, Informative) by KritonK on Friday July 31 2020, @07:31PM (1 child)

    by KritonK (465) on Friday July 31 2020, @07:31PM (#1029462)

    How's that possible? That indicates the thermal profile digital model of of the craft was wrong to begin with.

    From https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=41005.msg2113511#msg2113511 [nasaspaceflight.com]

    Modeling by the team predicted something like this could happen during eclipse – the time when the spacecraft is in Earth’s shadow – but we could not create this exact environment for tests prior to launch. Nor did we have flight data from Curiosity, because its trajectory had no eclipse. We set the limits for the temperature differential conservatively tight for triggering a safe mode. The philosophy is that it is far better to trigger a safe mode event when not required, than miss one that is. Safe mode is a stable and acceptable mode for the spacecraft, and triggering safe mode during this transitional phase is not problematic for Mars 2020.

    In other words, everything worked as planned for this eventuality.

    • (Score: 2, Funny) by fustakrakich on Friday July 31 2020, @08:04PM

      by fustakrakich (6150) on Friday July 31 2020, @08:04PM (#1029476) Journal

      everything worked as planned

      Now, be ready to die! BWAAHAHAHAHAAA!

      --
      La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
  • (Score: 3, Funny) by Runaway1956 on Friday July 31 2020, @07:35PM (4 children)

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Friday July 31 2020, @07:35PM (#1029465) Journal

    What was that bit on Star Trek?

    "To boldly go where no man has gone before, so the next person knows how to go there again and survive."

    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Mojibake Tengu on Friday July 31 2020, @07:46PM

      by Mojibake Tengu (8598) on Friday July 31 2020, @07:46PM (#1029472) Journal

      I presume there already were some stuffs boldly passing Earth's shadow before.

      --
      Respect Authorities. Know your social status. Woke responsibly.
    • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 31 2020, @08:06PM (2 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 31 2020, @08:06PM (#1029477)

      <pedantic>
      "To go boldly..."
      </pedantic>

      • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 31 2020, @09:31PM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 31 2020, @09:31PM (#1029499)

        That ship sailed [wikipedia.org] a long time ago.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 01 2020, @02:38PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 01 2020, @02:38PM (#1029831)

          I yield...

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 31 2020, @10:46PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 31 2020, @10:46PM (#1029512)

    If that was the expected coldest part of the mission, and if there were no mission requirements that needed to be met in that region, and the spacecraft is happy and has no problem at those temperatures in safe mode, then why would you want to design for it to be operational during that time? I'd rather SWAP the changes you would need for that region for extra capability elsewhere.