The robot Curiosity NASA gets more than two and a half years on the surface of Mars, making important part of its scientific objectives. But the weather on Mars has created certain problems in the rover, one of which was solved passed through a software update week.
“Last November we discovered that a small laser used to focus the telescope ChemCam (one of the instrumental aboard Curiosity) had failed,” said Roger Wiens, director of instruments of Los Alamos National Laboratory to the NASA .
“Without this laser ChemCam was something blind. The main leader who creates flashes of plasma when analyzing rocks and soil at a distance of 25 feet was not affected, but the analysis of laser only works when the telescope that projects the laser to lens is in focus. ”
And that was the problem, the instrument could not focus well, so since November Curiosity made the team took nine images, each with a different approach.
Then, the robot sent all the material to Earth for scientists to decide which to use. The measure was also used for the analyzes made by laser.
The development of the solution was between December and January, with tests conducted during the months into a clone of ChemCam stored by the laboratory itself, plus additional tests made in France and the Jet Propulsion Lab of NASA.
The update, with a weight of 40 KB, was sent last week to Curiosity, now you have the ability to capture nine images but determine for yourself which is which is focused to send only that.
“We now have better imaging and analysis with this new software with the original,” he said Wiens.
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