NASA - Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) patch.
July 11, 2016
Mission Status Report
NASA's Curiosity Mars rover is resuming full operations today, following work by engineers to investigate why the rover put itself into a safe standby mode on July 2. The rover team brought Curiosity out of safe mode on July 9.
The most likely cause of entry into safe mode has been determined to be a software mismatch in one mode of how image data are transferred on board. Science activity planning for the rover is avoiding use of that mode, which involves writing images from some cameras’ memories into files on the rover’s main computer. Alternate means are available for handling and transmitting all image data.
Image above: This May 11, 2016, self-portrait of NASA's Curiosity Mars rover shows the vehicle at the "Okoruso" drilling site on lower Mount Sharp's "Naukluft Plateau." The scene is a mosaic of multiple images taken with the arm-mounted Mars Hands Lens Imager (MAHLI). Image Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS.
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/
Related article:
Curiosity Rover Enters Precautionary Safe Mode
http://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.ch/2016/07/curiosity-rover-enters-precautionary.html
Image (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/Tony Greicius/JPL/Guy Webster.
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