NASA鈥檚 Mars Odyssey orbiter woke up refreshed on Wednesday, after being rebooted to clear its memory of the accumulated effects of space radiation.
The reboot also restored Odyssey鈥檚 鈥淏-side鈥�, back-up systems that could be used if any problems were to arise in the probe鈥檚 primary equipment. A power supply on Odyssey鈥檚 鈥淏-side鈥� has been down since March 2007, but engineers suspected a reboot would restore the instrument.
鈥淔or nearly two years, we have not known for certain whether the backup systems would be usable,鈥� Philip Varghese, Odyssey鈥檚 project manager, said in a . 鈥淭his successful reboot has allowed us to ascertain their health and availability for future use.鈥�
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鈥楴ot risk-free鈥�
has been orbiting Mars since 2001. The orbiter鈥檚 last reboot was in October 2003.
Although a reboot is 鈥渘ot a risk-free event鈥�, continuing to operate the craft without refreshing its systems would have left it vulnerable to memory flaws, NASA last week. Incoming charged particles from space, called cosmic rays, can cause errors in Odyssey鈥檚 on-board memory that accumulate with time.
A team is now restoring the spacecraft to full function, and the craft鈥檚 science instruments are expected to be back to studying Mars by next week.
Spacecraft highlights
Odyssey, the longest-serving spacecraft currently orbiting Mars, has been the prime communications relay for the Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity. (If Odyssey were to fail, the rovers could relay data through NASA鈥檚 Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter or Europe鈥檚 Mars Express orbiter. They also have the capability to relay data directly to Earth.)
The probe paved the way for the agency鈥檚 recent Mars Phoenix lander by detecting vast amounts of frozen water beneath the surface near the planet鈥檚 poles.
Recently, Odyssey found the chemical fingerprints of what might have been an ancient ocean on Mars, as well as the planet鈥檚 first known chloride salt deposits, which may have preserved evidence of past Martian life.
NASA originally planned to conduct the reboot on Monday, but the procedure was delayed in order to analyse a rise in temperature in the probe鈥檚 star camera, which uses the locations of stars to pinpoint the probe鈥檚 orientation.
Engineers later found a temporarily stuck heater circuit was responsible for the readings. The circuit was switched off before the reboot.
