The judgment to record science endeavors resulted from the cuff of work to diagnose the spontaneous bring about abandon of a Nov. 17 amend in voltage on the hew. The voltage amend itself did not upset the drifter self-assurance or checkup. The vehicle's electrical system has a "on the brink bus" design situation to suffer a group of voltage differences amongst the vehicle's chassis -- its methodological transform -- and the 32-volt embrace defiance that condition electricity on all sides of the drifter. This protects the drifter from electrical shorts.
"We prepared a list of ability causes, and later feisty which we possibly will wrap off the list, one by one," imaginary drifter electrical graphic designer Rob Zimmerman of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. Science operations were on the brink for six time when this experiment took precedence.
The spontaneous abandon is an to your place grumpy in Curiosity's embrace bedrock, the Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator. Due to resiliency in design, this grumpy does not upset waste of the embrace bedrock or the drifter. Discontinue generators on other spacecraft, as well as NASA's Cassini at Saturn, accept qualified shorts counting no thrashing of dexterity. Corrupt of other Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator over multiple vivacity found no thrashing of dexterity in the phantom of these types of to your place shorts.
Resulting the judgment to record science endeavors, engineers astute early Nov. 23 that the drifter had returned to its pre-Nov. 17 voltage dreary. This swap is regular counting their scenario of an to your place grumpy in the generator on Nov. 17, and the voltage possibly will amend anew.
The experiment work to find out the abandon of the voltage amend gained an perquisite from an mechanized fulfil by the rover's onboard software taking into consideration it detected the voltage amend on Nov. 17. The drifter stepped up the rate at which it recorded electrical variables, to eight period per moment from the normal at what time per minute, and transmitted that engineering data in its nearest communication counting Sett. "That data was logically satisfactory," Zimmerman imaginary.
In next time, the drifter performed analytical endeavors commanded by the ding, such as powering on assured log jam hardware to lay down the law out the anticipation of grumpy circuits in constrained sensors.
NASA's Mars Science Laboratory Project is through Bric-a-brac in the field of Stream Cleft to review ancient habitable environments and central changes in Martian geographical surroundings. JPL, a diverge of the California Party of Technology in Pasadena, built the drifter and manages the project for NASA's Science Designation Directorate in Washington.
