I'm still loving every minute of this.. This is like the technology super bowl! Let me translate this to unix geek.. ] For Spirit, part of the cure has been deleting thousands of ] files from the rover's flash memory -- a type of rewritable ] electronic memory that retains information even when power ] is off. Many of the deleted files were left over from the seven ] -month flight from Florida to Mars. Onboard software was ] having difficulty managing the flash memory, triggering ] Spirit's computer to reset itself about once an hour. Cleaning out a directory with too many files ... ON MARS!! ] Two days after the problem arose, engineers began using a ] temporary workaround of sending commands every day to put ] Spirit into an operations mode that avoided use of flash ] memory. Now, however, the computer is stable even when ] operating in the normal mode, which uses the flash ] memory. Single user mode ... ON MARS!!! ] "To be safe, we want to reformat the flash and start ] again with a clean slate," Adler said. That reformatting ] is planned for Monday. It will erase everything stored in ] the flash file system and install a clean version of the ] flight software. PXE/bootp Automated Installs ... ON MARS!!!! Alright guys, now just keep the webcam working... ON MARS!!! Update: Looking at the press images section right now is a great reminder that we got way more then a webcam over there. Hot damn. Once these things start really moving around, I'll break out the RC car jokes! |