** The Official Space Flight Thread - The Space Station and Beyond **

Mp4 said:
any Sol update today?
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Nothing published yet. This is last update:

Curiosity Preps for a Planned 'Brain Transplant'
Sat, 11 Aug 2012 12:34:28 AM UTC+0100


A healthy Curiosity spent Sol 4, its fifth day on Mars, preparing for this weekend's planned "brain transplant"--transitioning to a new version of flight software on both of Curiosity's redundant main computers. The new software is better suited for Mars surface operations, such as driving and using Curiosity's robotic arm. The "brain transplant" will take place during a series of steps beginning this evening and continuing through Aug. 13. The new software was uploaded to the rover's memory during the Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft's flight from Earth. Key capabilities in the new software enable full use of Curiosity's powerful robotic arm and drill, and advanced image processing to check for obstacles while driving. This will ultimately allow Curiosity to make longer drives by giving the rover more autonomy to identify and avoid potential hazards and to drive along a safe path that the rover identifies for itself.



The flight team elected to defer further science activities until after the flight software transition is completed. Several Mastcam color images were downlinked. The mission's science team is busy analyzing images Curiosity has taken of its surroundings, and is discussing features of interest that they will investigate in a few weeks once initial checkouts of the rover and the landing site are completed.
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bah i just found n read that too ..lol

all good though I hope we get some feedback later on how the uploading of software went. I found that amazing that they uploaded the software in flight to Mars and had it idle, and even to do software updates is amazing.
 
This mission really is one of the historical moments of our lifetimes and indeed the entire planet Earth from now onwards. Less than 100 years ago look at where we were flight wise and now look, we have a probe on Mars mooching around doing its thing and sending back pictures.

We will definitely be seeing humans on Mars in our lifetime IMO.
 
mrk said:
This mission really is one of the historical moments of our lifetimes and indeed the entire planet Earth from now onwards. Less than 100 years ago look at where we were flight wise and now look, we have a probe on Mars mooching around doing its thing and sending back pictures.

We will definitely be seeing humans on Mars in our lifetime IMO.
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Not to be an ass, but we have had probes up there for decades.

I suppose the only difference is that this one is literally a laboratory on space wheels.
 
Yes that is what I was getting at. Curiosity is the first of its kind and a huge step from previous missions.
 
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