[meteorite-list] Curiosity Mars Rover Enters Precautionary Safe Mode

[Ron Baalke]

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=6559

Curiosity Rover Enters Precautionary Safe Mode
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
July 6, 2016

Mars Science Laboratory Mission Status Report

The team operating NASA's Curiosity Mars rover is taking steps to return 
the rover to full activity following a precautionary stand-down over the 
Fourth of July weekend.

Curiosity is now communicating with ground controllers and is stable. 
The rover put itself into safe mode on July 2, ceasing most activities 
other than keeping itself healthy and following a prescribed sequence 
for resuming communications.

Engineers are working to determine the cause of safe-mode entry. Preliminary 
information indicates an unexpected mismatch between camera software and 
data-processing software in the main computer. The near-term steps toward 
resuming full activities begin with requesting more diagnostic information 
from Curiosity.

Curiosity has entered safe mode three times previously, all during 2013.

The rover landed in Mars' Gale Crater in August 2012. During its first 
year on Mars, the mission achieved its goal by determining that, more 
than 3 billion years ago, the region offered fresh-water lakes and rivers 
with environmental conditions well-suited to supporting microbial life, 
if life has ever existed on Mars. In continuing investigations, the mission 
is learning more about the ancient wet environments and how and when they 
evolved to drier and less habitable conditions.

NASA last week approved an additional two-year extension, beginning Oct. 
1, 2016, for the Mars Science Laboratory Project, which developed and 
operates Curiosity.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, manages the project 
for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. JPL is a division 
of Caltech in Pasadena. For more information about Curiosity, visit:

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/

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

2016-177