The Opportunity rover he starts to forget after ten years εξερεύνησηof the surface of Mars. Opportunity's memory appears to have worn out with use, meaning the rover may forget data it has stored when powered down.
Opportunity began exploring the planet in 2004, and uses two kinds of memory. Scientists call them volatile and non-volatile. Non-volatile memory is kind of like a computer's hard drive and is used to store information that the rover will need to keep when it shuts down.
However, the rover is constantly losing data when it re-starts unexpectedly. The Mars Rover Opportunity Manager, NASA's John Callas, compares the problem with a disease.
"The problems started quite mildly, but now they have become much more serious - it is very much like a disease, the symptoms were mild, but now with the progress of time things have become more serious," Callas told the Discovery News.
The problem grew, and by Christmas, Rover had ceased to communicate with the Earth. He failed to execute instructions given to him, although he had contact with his auditors.
NASA scientists believe they can handle the problem. It seems that one of the seven memory banks embedded in the rover is causing problems, and they hope that if they isolate the problem, Rover will continue to function normally with the other six.
But to do this, scientists will have to write a new one software and then load and install it on Opportunity. This is expected to happen in the next two weeks.
