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Mars rover Curiosity’s software upgraded

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Re: Mars rover Curiosity’s software upgraded

#3

Post by aroch »

I get nervous sometimes when flashing ROMs on my phone...And those were downloaded over a (comparatively) 0-latency connection with high throughput. Fact that sending a firmware to Mars is apparently a normal thing now notwithstanding, I find this incredible.

Re: Mars rover Curiosity’s software upgraded

#4

Post by atsaloli »

A lot of work has gone into making that software especially robust, including some custom tooling for facilitating peer review. Dr. Holzmann (formerly of Bell Labs, birthplace of Unix) heads JPL's Laboratory for Reliable Software to lead this work.

If you'd like to learn more, I written about the LARS methodology after hearing Dr. Holzmann at USENIX Hot Topics in Dependable Software: http://www.verticalsysadmin.com/making_robust_software/

Re: Mars rover Curiosity’s software upgraded

#5

Post by johnw »

Also interesting is the amount of damage being done to the wheels as it drives around up there. Some good pictures of that here[1]. Apparently the wheels are designed to leave a mark so they can keep track of the rovers location by looking at the tracks[2]. The tracks spell out JPL in morse code.

[1] http://news.discovery.com/space/martian-wear-and-tear-curios...

[2] http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2013/1002210...

Re: Mars rover Curiosity’s software upgraded

#7

Post by cypher543 »

fabriceleal wrote: post #6

Possibly cool idea: build a Curiosity emulator/simulator. Build the o.s. for it and/or user-space (does any of those concepts apply? probably not) software for it. Does this already exist? This looks like it. http://sourceforge.net/projects/marsroversim/

Curiosity definitely has an OS (VxWorks). But I asked one of the developers about releasing some code after Curiosity landed and was told that they couldn't. So I doubt an accurate Curiosity emulator will ever be possible unless JPL releases their code 45 years from now like NASA did with Apollo 11's guidance system. (https://code.google.com/p/virtualagc/)

Re: Mars rover Curiosity’s software upgraded

#8

Post by bad_alloc »

aroch wrote: post #3

I get nervous sometimes when flashing ROMs on my phone...And those were downloaded over a (comparatively) 0-latency connection with high throughput. Fact that sending a firmware to Mars is apparently a normal thing now notwithstanding, I find this incredible.

The rover has got two computers though and during upgrades only one is updated. If something goes wrong, the non-updated one takes over and they can restore the last working state. Phones are easy to brick since they lack a backup system.

Re: Mars rover Curiosity’s software upgraded

#9

Post by raverbashing »

cypher543 wrote: post #7
fabriceleal wrote: post #6

Possibly cool idea: build a Curiosity emulator/simulator. Build the o.s. for it and/or user-space (does any of those concepts apply? probably not) software for it. Does this already exist? This looks like it. http://sourceforge.net/projects/marsroversim/

Curiosity definitely has an OS (VxWorks). But I asked one of the developers about releasing some code after Curiosity landed and was told that they couldn't. So I doubt an accurate Curiosity emulator will ever be possible unless JPL releases their code 45 years from now like NASA did with Apollo 11's guidance system. ( https://code.google.com/p/virtualagc/ )

They usually have terrestrial duplicates where tests occur and bug troubleshooting is done

Re: Mars rover Curiosity’s software upgraded

#10

Post by nknighthb »

johnw wrote: post #5

Also interesting is the amount of damage being done to the wheels as it drives around up there. Some good pictures of that here[1]. Apparently the wheels are designed to leave a mark so they can keep track of the rovers location by looking at the tracks[2]. The tracks spell out JPL in morse code. [1] http://news.discovery.com/space/martian-wear-and-tear-curios... [2] http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/20…

Considering the hole is non-structural and it's more than halfway through the original planned mission duration, those wheels look fine to me!

I wouldn't mind seeing the progression, though, since they say it's accelerated recently on the rough terrain.

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