"Good news" -- Spirit responds in 'cripple mode'

JPL folks were much cheerier today, they have been successfully commanding
Spirit in a mode that avoids use of some of its memory modules -- 'Flash
memort' -- which is suspect. They call it 'cripple mode', in jest --
actually, they could run the rest of the mission at full capability this
way, if necessary, but they want to determine what event precipitated the
failure first.

"JimO" wrote in
:

JPL folks were much cheerier today, they have been successfully
commanding Spirit in a mode that avoids use of some of its memory
modules -- 'Flash memory' -- which is suspect.

Hmm, so Gareth Slee's crack about "the Spirit is willing but the flash is
weak" wasn't just a joke, after all...?

Sorry, you can all shoot me now. :-)

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"JimO" wrote:

JPL folks were much cheerier today, they have been successfully commanding
Spirit in a mode that avoids use of some of its memory modules -- 'Flash
memort' -- which is suspect.

Has Flash RAM been used in past space probes in any significant way?


Byeeeee.
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JimO wrote:
JPL folks were much cheerier today, they have been successfully commanding
Spirit in a mode that avoids use of some of its memory modules -- 'Flash
memort' -- which is suspect. They call it 'cripple mode', in jest --
actually, they could run the rest of the mission at full capability this
way, if necessary, but they want to determine what event precipitated the
failure first.






Sweet..

In article ,
Brett O'Callaghan wrote:
JPL folks were much cheerier today, they have been successfully commanding
Spirit in a mode that avoids use of some of its memory modules -- 'Flash
memort' -- which is suspect.

Has Flash RAM been used in past space probes in any significant way?

Quite successfully on Deep Space 1, as I recall.
--
MOST launched 30 June; science observations running | Henry Spencer
since Oct; first surprises seen; papers pending. |

"Jorge R. Frank" wrote in message ...

"JimO" wrote in
:

JPL folks were much cheerier today, they have been successfully
commanding Spirit in a mode that avoids use of some of its memory
modules -- 'Flash memory' -- which is suspect.

Hmm, so Gareth Slee's crack about "the Spirit is willing but the flash is
weak" wasn't just a joke, after all...?

Sorry, you can all shoot me now. :-)

*BANG*

--
JRF

Reply-to address spam-proofed - to reply by E-mail,
check "Organization" (I am not assimilated) and
think one step ahead of IBM.

(Excellent!) g

happy days and...
starry starry nights!

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All becomes so clear to see
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Paine Ellsworth

On Sat, 24 Jan 2004 22:44:53 GMT, "JimO"
wrote:

JPL folks were much cheerier today, they have been successfully commanding
Spirit in a mode that avoids use of some of its memory modules -- 'Flash
memort' -- which is suspect. They call it 'cripple mode', in jest --
actually, they could run the rest of the mission at full capability this
way, if necessary, but they want to determine what event precipitated the
failure first.

Hopefully, some of this flash memory is still working, when Read Only
Memory (ROM) is not very good for storing picture in.

Anyway, it sounds to me like Spirit should be back trundling again
very soon, when simply not using the faulty memory should be an easy
thing to fix.

Removing the exact section of faulty memory from use, unless all of it
has gone, should be a touch more tricky, but nothing that any
competent coder could handle.

All this is way too suspect happening right before Opportunity arrived
and virtually fixed at the same time that it arrived. As if it was
planned or not, then this event would have generated a lot of extra
interest in this second landing.

Publicity for NASA right now would be quite important, which makes me
wonder if there was nothing really wrong with Spirit in the first
place.

Cardman
http://www.cardman.com
http://www.cardman.co.uk

On Sun, 25 Jan 2004 08:42:38 +0000, Cardman
wrote, in part:
On Sat, 24 Jan 2004 22:44:53 GMT, "JimO"
wrote:

JPL folks were much cheerier today, they have been successfully commanding
Spirit in a mode that avoids use of some of its memory modules -- 'Flash
memort' -- which is suspect. They call it 'cripple mode', in jest --
actually, they could run the rest of the mission at full capability this
way, if necessary, but they want to determine what event precipitated the
failure first.

Hopefully, some of this flash memory is still working, when Read Only
Memory (ROM) is not very good for storing picture in.

But Random Access Memory (RAM) will work for that.

I am more worried that now that it has been disclosed that some people
at NASA, without being halted *immediately* by their management with
stern warnings, have offended against the great God of political
correctness, that we may see JPL, NASA, and the entire U. S. space
program, as a racist, sexist, and phallocentric enterprise that has
now shown its true colors, shut down permanently.

This at least appears to be the way our society works these days.

John Savard
http://home.ecn.ab.ca/~jsavard/index.html

Henry Spencer wrote:

In article ,
Brett O'Callaghan wrote:
JPL folks were much cheerier today, they have been successfully commanding
Spirit in a mode that avoids use of some of its memory modules -- 'Flash
memort' -- which is suspect.

Has Flash RAM been used in past space probes in any significant way?

Quite successfully on Deep Space 1, as I recall.

Where might one find technical information on the rover such as details
on the computer hardware and software?

"Bill Bonde ( the oblique allusion in lieu of the frontal attack )"
Has Flash RAM been used in past space probes in any significant way?

Quite successfully on Deep Space 1, as I recall.

Where might one find technical information on the rover such as details
on the computer hardware and software?

Here's a description of the single-board computer at least:

http://www.iews.na.baesystems.com/sp...0/rad6000.html

Joe