NASA: Mars Probe Doomed By Human Error

(AP)  Human error triggered a cascade of events that caused the battery to fail on the Mars Global Surveyor last year, according to a preliminary report released Friday.

An internal NASA board determined that power loss likely doomed the spacecraft after a decade of meticulously mapping the Red Planet.

But the problems actually began in 2005, when a routine technical update to onboard computers caused inconsistencies in the spacecraft's memory. The board concluded that engineers didn't catch the mistakes because the existing procedures to do so were inadequate.

Scientists lost contact last November with the $154 million Global Surveyor. Launched in 1996, it was the oldest of six different active probes on the Martian surface or circling the planet.

Several attempts to locate the spacecraft were unsuccessful, and the mission was declared ended in January.

Global Surveyor was built with redundant control systems to guard against failure. However, the board found inconsistencies in the memories of the spacecraft's two onboard computers because the updates were done at different times.

Six months before Global Surveyor fell silent, engineers sent up incorrect software commands that disabled its solar panels. A final command in November telling the spacecraft to adjust its solar panels caused the battery to overheat and lose power.

The Global Surveyor beamed back some 240,000 pictures, including the first detailed views of swirling dust devils and gullies.

Shortly before it failed, it also found stunning evidence that liquid water recently coursed through Mars. The discovery, which still needs to be confirmed, raises the possibility that the planet may have an environment conducive to primitive life.

[rf35]

The Earth's magnetic poles have flipped several times throughout the planet's history. These do not tie in with any mass extinction events, so the Earth obviously did not fry even though the magnetic field virtually shut down during these flips. We are actually due for another reversal anytime between now and the next few thousand years or so. I would love to be around when it happens to watch the chaos as magnetic media is destroyed, navigation systems go haywire, communications are critically disrupted, and basically anything electronic gets fried. Or maybe it will be barely noticeable since the field is so weakened during these events. It would be fascinating to witness in any case.

[rf35]

mikealford3,
I'm doing my part by not having any children. I also support educational initiatives to teach people that Earth's population is unsustainable and to urge them to forgo having multiple, if any, children. I'm not telling anyone to refuse treatment if they are ill or to go out and jump off a building to make the world a better place. Though for some, that might be a good idea ;) Seriously, the only way to reduce the suffering of humanity as a whole is by reducing the population by way of greater reproducitve responsibility. Nobody has any reason to have half a dozen kids. 0-1= population reduction, 2=population sustainment, 3=a death sentence for Earth.

[mikealford3]

I hate to tell some of you this, but by the time the sun burns out there will not be any life on earth to see it go dark. We are so busy hating and killing each other the last human will likely die of bordom after years of being alone.

I wonder if some of you who talk about the human population exceeding the capacity of the earth's resources are willing to refuse help next time you get sick? The next time someone you love gets sick, would you be willing to let them die so the rest of us could use their part of the resources, I doubt it.

[mikealford3]

rf35, actually according to a Discovery channel special on the northern lights, without the magnetic field at the poles, earth would fry. The Aurora Borialis(forgive the spelling)or northern lights are caused by tremendous amounts of solar energy coming from storms on the surface of the sun. The magnetic fields at the poles attract that solar energy which results in the lights. Without that magnetic field at the poles, those solar storms would hit the earth with enough energy to radiate and kill millions of people around the world. One scientist said there is enough solar energy in the northern lights to supply the entire earth with electricity for a year.

[rf35]

Please forgive the typos in my last posts. I think I need more coffee...

[rf35]

razzl,
I am looking for information on the solidification of Earth's outher core, but I can't seem to find anything. Where did you get this information? Also, why would losing our magnetic field be bad (aside from compasses no longer working)? The field does not do much as far as solar radiation is concerned. It deflects some particles from the solar wind and gives us pretty northern lights. The planet would definitely not fry if the field collapsed. The movie "The Core" was filled with inane ideas and from start ot finish.

http://www.intuitor.com/moviephysics/core.html

Check out this link regarding the "science" of that movie. It's both funny and somewhat educational.

[rf35]

America, in cooperation with other countries, must continue to fund aggressive space research and exploration if **** sapiens is to survive. The human population has exceeded Earth's ability to sustain it. Unless some unforeseen catastrophe results in a massive population plunge, the only way for the species to survive is to find new resources. The oceans are dying, so no help there. Space is the logical alternative. If we can manage long enough to get out of the solar system, or at least find sources of consumables nearer home, we'll have a chance. Otherwise, it means extinction. How's that for benefiting people?

[Razzl]

Science has already laid out the road map for us: either explore space and begin to move life outward from our solar system or perish when the sun collapses. (Or when the earth's core solidifies, which in some scenarios is as soon as 100 years, extinguishing the magnetosphere and allowing us to be fried by the sun). So now what is space exploration worth? Do you want the human race and life on earth to be able to continue elsewhere in the future, or does it not matter to you?

[musty2u]

My money is on Iraq; looking for a return in a virtual vaccuum seems ludicrous to me. Better yet, a weather-proof airline industry would have some benefits here on terra firma.

[mikealford3]

There are many valid points here. I agree without this war mess we could have more money for other things. I just think some things seem foolish. $7 Billion dollars to "attempt" to send a probe to Pluto is a little outrageous, considering scientists now say it's not even a planet. Could tests of LED lights and the effects of them on plants and animals have been done here on earth? If we take care of the earth, why would we need to colonize Venus?

Again we can put a robot on mars or the moon even to Pluto, yet we still have not developed a computer that can collect VOTES in a national election from around the 50 states and transmit the results to a central location somewhere in the U.S.