Mars Opportunity rover has ‘mind wipe’ to restore faulty memory

THE Opportunity was never expected to last more than 90 days. But some 11 years later, it’s showing signs of its age. And it’s just had its memory wiped.

29/06/2003 WIRE: Artwork of The Mars rover, named Opportunity, (AP) PicNASA/HO illustrations space surface exploration Pic. Ap

NASA’s oldest operational planetary explorer has just had its mind wiped. Now, after an 11-year marathon, Opportunity faces redundancy under tightening budgets.

It’s something of an analogy of the modern human workplace: Older but eminently capable employees losing out to fresher, younger recruits.

In this case it's the Mars Rover Opportunity versus the new(er) kid on the block, Curiosity.

Opportunity’s achievements are nothing to dismiss: The six-wheeled robot just finished travelling the distance of a 42km marathon in its epic journey to explore Endeavour Crater on the surface of Mars.

It completed it in record time.

Run, Oppy, run! Rover completes Olympic #marathon on Mars, continues science http://t.co/llg9NrFGZd pic.twitter.com/EocUWH9sRu

— Spirit and Oppy (@MarsRovers) March 24, 2015

The budget Mars Rover was never expected to last more than 90 days. But, some 11 years later, it’s showing signs of its age.

Opportunity has just survived major neural surgery. It’s had its mind wiped — and its memory restored.

After 11+ years of driving, our Opportunity Mars Rover finishes marathon! Details: http://t.co/GIM7ToDU2D @MarsRovers pic.twitter.com/rJ8hzbUDtv

— NASA (@NASA) March 25, 2015

It’s all part of NASA’s efforts to bypass a dodgy flash memory module which has plagued the little probe since December 2014.

Every night it has had to transmit all of its experiences back to Earth in order for them to be preserved. When night falls and its solar panels fail, all of its memory has been lost.

Until now.

Valley views ... NASA's Mars Rover Opportunity catches its own late-afternoon shadow in this dramatically lit view eastwards across Endeavour Crater on Mars. Source: Getty

The flash memory module causing the read-write fault has been identified and isolated. But NASA had to give Opportunity the equivalent of a “mind wipe” to erase any knowledge its computers have of the existence of the dodgy memory cell.

Yesterday officials announced the procedure was a success: Opportunity has its memory back.

This will enable Opportunity to undertake much more complicated observations and experiments without the need to devote much of its time to transmitting and receiving data.

Mars Memento: Overnight data storage back on line thanks to Oppy's memory reformat http://t.co/YXdBAka89W pic.twitter.com/IMp1mNJKs6

— Spirit and Oppy (@MarsRovers) March 23, 2015

Opportunity, which landed on Mars in January 2004, is now positioned on the rip of the Endeavour Crater.

The valley it is currently exploring has been named Marathon Valley.

Fresh recruit Curiosity has covered 10km since landing on Mars in August 2012.

NASA has not requested funding to keep Opportunity operational beyond 2015.

But the little robot’s minders remain hopeful the relative pittance the project costs in comparison to other NASA programs will still be found in the final spending plan.

@JamieSeidel

.@MarsOrbiter Has Mars been nuked? No. This MOM image shows us what we already know. http://t.co/l8uVHBgSBG pic.twitter.com/rdsM3zNTaS

— Jamie Seidel (@JamieSeidel) March 9, 2015