NASA will be giving its Mars Opportunity rover a flash memory reformat to solve the device's memory issues.
The rover, the older sibling of the space agency's Curiosity, has been getting frequent computer resets lately to solve problems it's been having with its memory, according to CNET. Over a dozen of these resets were performed just in August, and they have slowed down the rover's progress in performing tasks, such as studying clay minerals.
"Worn-out cells in the flash memory are the leading suspect in causing these events," said John Callas, project manager of NASA's Mars Exploration Project.
Opportunity was sent to Mars in early 2004 and has been active ever since, collecting data about the Red Planet's ancient wet environments, the Times of India reported.
NASA will download all of the useful data in the rover's flash memory and send it back to Earth. Opportunity will then be switched over to an operating mode that doesn't use flash memory.
Individual cells inside a flash memory can wear out if they are used too often, the Times of India reported. With reformatting, the memory can be cleared and bad cells can be found and flagged so that they aren't used.
"The flash reformatting is a low-risk process, as critical sequences and flight software are stored elsewhere in other non-volatile memory on the rover," Callas said.
Opportunity's reformat is scheduled to be done from Earth, more than 100 million miles away from the rover's location, in early September.
