Curiosity on Mars This artist's concept depicts the Curiosity rover using its Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument to investigate the composition of a rock surface. ChemCam fires laser pulses at a target and views the resulting spark with a telescope and spectrometers to identify chemical elements. The laser is actually in an invisible infrared wavelength, but is shown here as visible red light for purposes of illustration. NASA/JPL-Caltech

The Mars rover Curiosity is back out of safe mode after a computer glitch, according to NASA. The rover is still using its backup computer, but it resumed using its high-gain antenna to communicate with Earth.

The rover experienced some memory problems last week and put itself into safe mode as a precaution. NASA is still analyzing the problem. Meanwhile, rover experiments will resume probably next week.

3 Comments

It's too bad it could get buried under tens of feet of Comet and Martian dust soon.

http://science.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/26/17107085-comet-just-might-hit-mars-in-2014?lite

JPL labs has just updated the trajectory too and now it's coming at least twice as close as previously estimated--about 33,000 miles. Even worse is that other labs have combined their data with JPL and the minimum distance is ZERO.

Uh oh.

I wonder if gizmowiz comment will get deleted too or other peoples as well?

Whadayasay we leave the conspiracy theories on planet Earth a while longer, Amun-Ra? Gizmowiz presents a valid scientific concern that can be verified.
You, Amun-Ra? Not so much.



June 2013: American Energy Independence

Five amazing, clean technologies that will set us free, in this month's energy-focused issue. Also: how to build a better bomb detector, the robotic toys that are raising your children, a human catapult, the world's smallest arcade, and much more.


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