Keatah

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Keatah

Fuk'n flash memory. Mars Rover Opportunity is having flash memory degradation. They had to reformat last month, and now they are having startup issues. Typical flash memory design life is 10-years. And this is even aerospace grade. imagine the cheap stuff in your home electronics.
- September 24, 2014
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2. Stephen
  
  Bummer - but ten years on a planned 90-day mission is pretty good!
  
  September 24, 2014
3. Keatah
  
  @DoctorTom. You are very welcome. You will say the same thing if you experience a bad flash memory chip.
  
  @Stephen: MER was expected to operate for 90 days. But when they built it they used design parameters suitable for a 2-year lifespan. And validation tests of the design showed a 4-year lifespan.
  
  Many spacecraft operate way beyond their design life. And sometimes you have to plan a short mission to get initial funding going. With the hidden intent of going much longer....
  
  September 24, 2014
4. Keatah
  
  Kind of like the kid getting to stay up till 10:30pm, and pestering his parents to go to 10:45, then 11:00, and so on. Whereas if he asked to stay up till 11 he might have gotten shot down all the way back to the standard time of 10:00.
  
  Don't kid yourself, the PI knew the mission would go on longer than 90 days. And it's good PR too. WOW LOOK AT THAT ENGINEERING!! They knew all along. This is standard practice.
  
  September 24, 2014
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