[meteorite-list] Curiosity Rover Exits 'Safe Mode'

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Tue, 19 Mar 2013 13:49:28 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <201303192049.r2JKnSfO000029_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2013-104

Curiosity Rover Exits 'Safe Mode'
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
March 19, 2013

PASADENA, Calif. - NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has returned to active
status and is on track to resume science investigations, following two
days in a precautionary standby status, "safe mode."

Next steps will include checking the rover's active computer, the B-side
computer, by commanding a preliminary free-space move of the arm. The
B-side computer was provided information last week about the position of
the robotic arm, which was last moved by the redundant A-side computer.

The rover was switched from the A-side to the B-side by engineers on
Feb. 28 in response to a memory glitch on the A-side. The A-side now is
available as a back-up if needed.

"We expect to get back to sample-analysis science by the end of the
week," said Curiosity Mission Manager Jennifer Trosper of NASA's Jet
Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

Engineers quickly diagnosed the software issue that prompted the safe
mode on March 16 and know how to prevent it from happening again.

Other upcoming activities include preparations for a moratorium on
transmitting commands to Curiosity during most of April, when Mars will
be passing nearly directly behind the sun from Earth's perspective. The
moratorium is a precaution against interference by the sun corrupting a
command sent to the rover.

NASA's Mars Science Laboratory project is using Curiosity and the
rover's 10 science instruments to investigate environmental history
within Gale Crater, a location where the project has found that
conditions were long ago favorable for microbial life. JPL, a division
of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the
project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

More information about Curiosity is online at
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/msl , http://www.nasa.gov/msl and
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/ . You can follow the mission on Facebook
at: http://www.facebook.com/marscuriosity and on Twitter at:
http://www.twitter.com/marscuriosity .

Guy Webster 818-354-6278
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
guy.webster at jpl.nasa.gov

2013-104
Received on Tue 19 Mar 2013 04:49:28 PM PDT