An anomaly with a key computer memory unit aboard Europe鈥檚 Mars Express, currently speeding towards the red planet, has interrupted remote testing of the spacecraft, the European Space Agency revealed on Tuesday.
鈥淭hese kinds of events are considered routine in a space mission,鈥� a statement from ESA says. 鈥淏ut engineers would like to understand the causes before re-starting the instrument tests.鈥� Mars Express carries seven scientific instruments that will conduct a top-to-bottom search for water on the planet.
On 20 June 快猫短视频 discovered that mission controllers at the European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) in Darmstadt, Germany, had received a message that they were not expecting from the spacecraft.
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The statement released by ESA now reveals that the spacecraft鈥檚 Solid State Mass Memory (SSMM) unit 鈥� used to store scientific data before transmission back to Earth 鈥� produced an error during testing of the craft鈥檚 Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (OMEGA).
ESA says the problem disappeared spontaneously and the memory unit is now working normally. But the spacecraft鈥檚 operators are keen to determine the cause of the error and further testing of the spacecraft has been set back to preserve the relevant data stored in the SSMM.
Crucial test
Also on Tuesday, ESA rejected as inaccurate a Russian report suggesting that the Mars Express has been unable to communicate with Beagle 2 because of a computer problem. An ESOC spokeswoman said, apart from the delay, operations were 鈥減roceeding quite normally鈥�.
But the interruption has set back the first activation of the British-built Mars lander Beagle 2, which is aboard Mars Express. Engineers had planned to boot up the probe鈥檚 computers on 20 June, but this will not now happen until 4 July at the earliest. It will be a crucial test, as it will show how well the lander survived the rigours of take-off.
There is still plenty of time to test both Mars Express and Beagle 2, as they will not arrive at the red planet until late December. Beagle 2 should then separate and touch down on the planet鈥檚 surface on 25 December and begin its search for signs of water and, perhaps, life.