Mars Exploration Rover Mission Status Report: The team operating NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity learned Thursday that the long-lived rover experienced a brief amnesia event related to its flash memory, the first since a reformatting of that nonvolatile type of memory a week earlier.
The amnesia event did not result in any loss of science data, and Opportunity subsequently continued its activities using tools on its robotic arm to examine a rock target called “Athens.” The rover experienced dozens of similar amnesia events and more serious flash-related resets of the onboard computer prior to 2015, then operated without using flash memory until last week.
“We changed how the rover uses flash memory in an attempt to correct problems the rover had been experiencing,” said John Callas, project manager for Opportunity at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California. “Although we are a little disappointed at the occurrence of an amnesia event only five days after reformatting, we are not surprised. There is still no clear understanding of what is causing the problems. Only time will tell if we have been successful in mitigating the most serious flash problems.” [More at link]