11 August 2012

Sols 4 to 5: New Flight Software, MSL memes

Posted by Ryan Anderson

After my uplink shift yesterday, I managed to catch a few hours of sleep before coming in at 3am. Today was my day off, you see.

You may be wondering why one would come in to work at 3am on one’s day off. Answer: because that’s when the science happens! Actually, I mis-read the schedule. The science theme group meetings were more like 1am, but I got in in time for the science kickoff meeting, and then had a few hours to ogle some of the new data that came down (don’t worry, it should be publicly released soon!).

Things are going to be quiet for science operations for the next few days because the rover is getting a flight software upgrade. As I understand it, the software for entry, descent, and landing can now be removed and replaced with the software for driving and moving the arm, but to do so takes several days. In the meantime, we scientists get a bit of a break: other than science discussion meetings, this weekend is looking, well, like a weekend.

Finally, some odds and ends. You know that QR code on Curiosity that looks like a pixlelated rover? Well, my friend Chase wasn’t able to find it online, so he made one:

Also, there have been some great Curiosity memes making the rounds lately. Here are my favorites:

This one really confused our French ChemCam team members, who were not familiar with this saying...