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Spirit Reboots With New Software
On Sol 98, which ended at 10:36 p.m. PST on April 12, Spirit woke up to the song "Where Is My Mind?" by The Pixies in honor of its software transplant. The good news is that Spirit's "mind" is updated and operating as expected. Controllers gave the go to reboot the rover's computer, which would then run the new software during the morning of sol 98. The command was sent, and a little over a half hour later, engineers saw the carrier beep that indicated that the command was received. Spirit went to sleep for several minutes after that, and then woke up, rebooting into the new software. It then initiated a high-gain antenna session at 12:30 p.m. Mars Local Solar time, and engineers saw that the new version of the rover software was running properly. After confirmation that the new software was running as expected, engineers ran some clean-up activities and breathed a sigh of satisfaction. The new software provides several improvements. It enhances the rovers' mobility, and should allow Spirit to go much farther each sol by reducing how often it has to take images and generate new three-dimensional maps. A deep-sleep mode has been added, mainly to resolve the heater that is stuck in the "on" position on the Opportunity rover. However, someday Spirit may find a use for this mode as well. The new software also mitigates the memory problem Spirit had on sol 18, and seems to be making a difference already. Spirit's unallocated memory jumped from 2.0 megabytes to 3.3 megabytes after the new software compacted the flash directories when it booted. It's back to regular operations for Spirit on sol 99, ending at 11:15 p.m. PST on April 13, brushing a six-spot mosaic on the rock target "Route 66." Spirit will then take microscopic imager images and spectrometer measurements before the sol is complete.
Opportunity Stands Down For Its Own Software Upgrade
Opportunity began a four-sol stand-down on sol 75, which ended at 8:58 a.m. PST on April 9, 2004. During this time, the rover will receive a flight software update that should make its remaining martian days even safer and more productive. The upload will run through sol 78 with a rover re-boot on sol 79, Tuesday, April 13.Opportunity is currently parked near the trench it dug on its 73rd martain sol. It will remain there for the duration of the flight software update. To keep the battery charge high, engineers are not planning to integrate the rover spectrometers on a target in the trailings of the trench during the flight software update. The flight software update package includes three key changes. First is an update to the autonomous navigation software that will allow both rovers to travel longer distances autonomously. The current autonomous navigation software sometimes gets stuck when it detects a hazard that it can't navigate around. The new version will allow the rovers to turn in place to find the best possible path. The second part of the flight software update will allow the rovers to recover more easily from an anomaly like the one that occurred on Spirit's sol 18. Although operational processes and software have already been updated to prevent something like this from ever happening again, engineers have included additional safety nets in the software that would allow the rovers to autonomously react to a similar anomaly and recover to a more stable state. The third portion of the update is specific to Opportunity and is intended to mitigate against energy loss associated with the stuck heater on Opportunity's instrument deployment device. The fix allows rover planners to put the rover in a deep sleep mode, where the batteries are totally removed from being able to power the stuck switch. Therefore, with no power reaching the stuck heater switch, the Opportunity rover battery will not be drained. Rover controllers will not initiate the deep sleep capability on Spirit unless it becomes necessary. Related Links Mars Rovers at JPL Mars Rovers at Cornell SpaceDaily Search SpaceDaily Subscribe To SpaceDaily Express 
Spirit Stands Down for Flight Software Update
Pasadena - Apr 13, 2004Spirit began a four-sol stand-down on sol 94, which ended at 8:37 p.m. on April 8, 2004. During this time, the rover will receive a flight software update that should make its remaining martian days even safer and more productive. Mars, King Of The Hill 
Moffett Field - Apr 13, 2004As both rovers approach their third month resident on Mars, the mission planners have returned to Earth time. Both rover teams look to make rapid progress toward distant hills, with a possible second September extension continuing with any remaining mission science.
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