Research/ PLANETARY ROBOTICS
The Curiosity Mars Rover's Fault Protection Engine
Ed Benowitz
Guidance, Dynamics & ControlOpenAlex topic: Fault Detection and Control Systems
Curiosity (MSL)named in title, abstract, keywords
OpenAlexDistributed systems and fault tolerance · Engineering and Test Systems · Fault Detection and Control SystemsNTRSComputer Programming and Software · Lunar and Planetary Science and Exploration
The Curiosity Rover, currently operating on Mars, contains flight software onboard to autonomously handle aspects of system fault protection. Over 1000 monitors and 39 responses are present in the flight software. Orchestrating these behaviorsis the flight software's fault protection engine. In this paper, we discuss the engine's design, responsibilities, and present some lessons learned for future missions.