The near news : last calendar week , NASA ’s Curiosity Rover confirm thatMars was once capable of harboring life . The risky news : for the second metre in as many calendar month , the Agency ’s new robotlike wanderer has had its scientific mission compromised by technical difficulties . The safe intelligence again : if all goes well , Curiosity should be right as pelting in a few short twenty-four hours .
Late last month , a corrupted memory file propel NASA engineers to switch the rover ’s main operations from its “ A - Side ” estimator to its “ B - Side ” backup . The rover rest in standby throughout the first half of March , and was slate to start normal surgical operation yesterday . But then Curiosity bleed into a fresh set of problems .
ViaSPACE.com :

The latest outcome has to do with some of the rover ’s files that were schedule for deletion . One of those files was link up to a Indian file still in function by the spacecraft , so the excision process cue an misplay that send the scouter into safe mode again , forestall the rover from resuming science as planned .
Curiosity chief scientist John Grotzinger says these type of errors are neither rare nor extraordinary . All it means , he says , is that “ skill has to stand down for a couple more days . ”
“ The expectation is , it ’s locomote to take a couple of sols [ Martian days ] to resolve this one . ”

Fortunately , Curiosity can still function as a brawny enquiry testing ground , which will allow for scientists to continue analyze all the data collected by the bird of passage to date . And with its chief commission of late accomplished ( i.e. confirming that Mars was once capable of harboring life ) , NASA engineer can find a little less pressured to get things up and run again .
But seriously , NASA engineers . Chop chop . Mount Sharp is n’t expire to explore itself .
More atSPACE.com .

AstronomyMarsMars roverScienceSpace
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