Mars Express orbiter to get code update after 19 years
- Reference: 1655879284
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2022/06/22/mars_express_orbiter_upgrade/
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Mars Express was launched on June 2, 2003, and was initially made up of two components: the Mars Express Orbiter and the Beagle 2 lander. Unfortunately, the lander failed to make contact with Earth after it was released and arrived at the surface of the Red Planet. It is [1]presumed lost . The orbiter, however, is still working after 19 years in service, spinning around Mars.
Now, engineers at the Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF), Italy, are revamping the spacecraft's software. The upgrade will allow the Mars Express Orbiter to continue searching for water locked beneath the Martian surface using its MARSIS radio-wave instrument and monitor the planet's closest satellite, Phobos, more efficiently. MARSIS is today operated by INAF and funded by the Italian Space Agency.
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Specifically, according to ESA, the orbiter, which is millions of miles from Earth, will receive "a series of upgrades that improve signal reception and on-board data processing to increase the amount and quality of science data sent to Earth." It appears part of the update will streamline its processes and communications to reduce the information collected by the onboard sensors to just what's needed.
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"Previously, to study the most important features on Mars, and to study its moon Phobos at all, we relied on a complex technique that stored a lot of high-resolution data and filled up the instrument's on-board memory very quickly," Andrea Cicchetti, the MARSIS deputy principal investigator and operation manager at INAF, leading the upgrade, [5]explained in a statement.
"By discarding data that we don't need, the new software allows us to switch MARSIS on for five times as long and explore a much larger area with each pass."
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Mars Express will thus continue to look for signs of water near the Martian South Pole at high resolutions. Colin Wilson, a scientist working on the mission, said the software was "like having a brand-new instrument on board…almost 20 years after launch."
"The MARSIS radar on-board software upgrade demonstrates that it is possible to renew an entire mission," Cicchetti told The Register in a statement.
"I am not surprised at all that such a mission is still in flight after 19 years. I [have been] working on it every day since its launch, and I am sure that Mars Express will give us the possibility to make many other discoveries in the coming years that will help us to better understand our planet."
[7]Surviving eclipse season and resurrecting 25-year-old software with Windows for Workgroups 3.11: One year with Mars Express
[8]Voyager 2 is back online after eight months of radio silence
[9]Humanity uploaded an AI to Mars and lets it shoot rocks with lasers
[10]Australia down for scheduled maintenance: No talking to Voyager 2 for 11 months
Mars Express was ESA's first planetary mission, and is the second oldest active spacecraft orbiting a planet other than Earth. The oldest is NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey. Pushing new software to such an old orbiter after so long is challenging, according to Carlo Nenna, an engineer at Enginium, an Italian IT consulting firm helping to roll out the upgrade.
"We faced a number of challenges to improve the performance of MARSIS," he said. "Not least because the MARSIS software was originally designed over 20 years ago, using a development environment based on Microsoft Windows 98!"
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The spacecraft carries seven instruments, including various cameras, spectrometers, and a radar altimeter to study Mars's atmosphere, climate, and geology. Mars Express was the first to spot signs of water ice and carbon dioxide ice on the planet, leading scientists to question whether it could have been habitable at some point. It also collected data that hinted at signs of methane, possibly forged in the hot furnace of volcanoes long ago.
Finally, the spacecraft orbiter has provided astronomers with some of the most detailed images of Phobos. The Martian moon is shaped like a potato, with an uneven, pockmarked surface unlike the Earth's round Moon. ®
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[1] https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/missions/beagle-2/in-depth/
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YrLoSBT9Rm-hnFBHN2nN4wAAAJE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
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[5] https://www.esa.int/Enabling_Support/Operations/Software_upgrade_for_19-year-old_martian_water-spotter
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YrLoSBT9Rm-hnFBHN2nN4wAAAJE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2021/06/02/mars_express/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2020/11/03/voyager_2_back_online/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2017/06/22/curiosity_rover_aegis_ai_software_doing_brilliantly/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2020/03/05/no_talking_to_voyager_2/
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[12] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: It never ceases to amaze me ...
That’s how stuff used to be built, built to last.
Not sure newer stuff is the same especially once the bean counters realise they’ve been duped into funding extended missions that where meant to last just a few days or years and are still funding them decades later.
To the builders of these things get to charge maintenance fees / extended warranties until the things give up?
Re: It never ceases to amaze me ...
I remember 20 years ago people moaning how stuff used to be built to last.
Re: It never ceases to amaze me ...
I did upvote you, cos I remember those times as well.
The problem is that I remember that the evidence brought out to support that argument was normally along the lines of "Just look at steam engines! Still around after more than 100 years!"
But there was no consideration that the 90% of steam engines that were not built to last are long gone, and that even those that remain represent a small fraction of a percent of the total of that make/model that were built. Statistically there is no evidence that they were built to last any better than modern cars. About the only advantage they have is bulk, in that they take longer to rust away due to the mass of metal involved.
In 100 years, I'm sure there will still be a number of antique petrol powered cars around, and people will be saying that the newer battery/fusion/flatulence powered models just aren't built to last!
Re: It never ceases to amaze me ...
Just look at steam engines! Still around after more than 100 years!
My issue with using steam engines as an example is that they have regular maintenance. The ones that still exist have had repeated overhauls (I wonder how much of these "old" engines are the original parts - Theseus' ship anyone?)
The long lived spacecrafts are far more impressive, as other than some software updates, the hardware hasn't changed since it left the factory.
Re: It never ceases to amaze me ...
steam engines used to break continually, and sometimes catastrophically. The big weak point was the boiler, which consisted on many metres of copper pipes. Add high pressure steam, and a single failure could pretty well destroy the engine. Of course there was no easy way to inspect them.
Steam enthusiasts tend to ignore that Steam engines are difficult to operate and maintain, and when they go, they go with a bang, so require constant matainence
Re: It never ceases to amaze me ...
Weird thing is that things today are actually more reliable than in the past. In the 70's it was accepted that things fail and your life revolved around it. Today if things fail it is a major talking point
The eponymous James Burke said once the lasting legacy of the Apollo space program, was not things like Teflon, better chip etc. These things would of happened anyway. It was that things broke down a bit less often
Re: It never ceases to amaze me ...
"[do] the builders of these things get to charge maintenance fees / extended warranties until the things give up?"
I've regularly seen Long Term Agreements over 20 years and occassionally over 30 years.
(I knew someone who 3 years ago was still having 6 monthly practice sessions working on core memories.)
I've also made sure that where there is on-site support provisions that it specifically states that this does not apply to deployed spacecraft!
Beagle 2
I don't think Beagle 2 is "lost": They know exactly where it is. It just kissed the ground a little bit too excitedly.
Re: Beagle 2
It just kissed the ground a little bit too excitedly.
Not even that, photos taken from orbit by another NASA Mars orbiter many years later show it on the planetary surface with partially deployed solar panels, which suggests a successful touchdown. Unfortunately the craft's central radio antenna is not uncovered until all solar panels deploy (they unfold from the stored position like a flower's petals) so it was never able to make initial radio contact with the Mars Express orbiter.
It's possible that it's still sat out there collecting data*, going "Hello? Hello? HELLO? IS THERE ANYBODY OUT THERE?????
* Highly unlikely given that its panels were probably covered by Martian dust long ago so won't be providing electrical power
Re: Beagle 2
Not sure why you got a downvote for that ... Beagle was deemed a mission failure but, as it turns out, was only a smidgen from success (if you can actually quantify "successfulness" of a mission). At least it's landing system (that worked) was far less scary than the sky cranes and stuff we had to endure later on!
Astounding
20 years after launch and they're updating the software with a better version from hundreds of thousands of kilometers away.
Space engineers are the coolest.
Re: Astounding
Based on Windows 98.........
Crikey!
It never ceases to amaze me ...
... how they are able to design and build a piece of equipment capable of being operated millions of miles away from home for decades at a time. The Voyagers are an extreme example of this, but things like Mars Express are now considered routine, and the surprise would have been if it had failed in the last 19 years.
Raising my glass to the spacecraft designers and builders (itself a highly skilled job) ====>