Curiosity Rover Status: Why NASA Almost Lost 2 Mars Rovers In A Month

NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover experienced a mysterious malfunction last week while it was exploring a clay region on the Red Planet.

During a routine reboot, the rover experienced a “hiccup” that triggered the space vehicle to enter safe mode. The rover recovered on Feb. 19 and is said to be back to normal. It has been rebooting without issue ever since.

According to a blog post by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), the group, which leads the Curiosity mission on Mars, is still not sure what caused the Curiosity to malfunction. But since the rover continued to send out and receive data even during safe mode, scientists will be using this data in trying to pinpoint what really caused the odd hiccup.

“We're still not sure of its exact cause and are gathering the relevant data for analysis. The rover experienced a one-time computer reset but has operated normally ever since, which is a good sign," Steven Lee, Curiosity's deputy project manager at NASA JPL in Pasadena, California, said.

NASA is currently working on taking a snapshot of Curiosity’s memory to find out what happened and to identify the part of the routine operation that went wrong. The JPL team is also taking some precautions by limiting the command given to the rover to “minimize changes to its memory.”

Curiosity was exploring a clay region, called “Glen Torridon,” when it entered safe mode. The area is considered to be a significant part of the Red Planet’s study because it can give scientists some clues about Mars’ ancient environments and help determine whether the planet’s surface can support life.

A possible location for drilling was also spotted by Curiosity about 200 meters away from Glen Torridon. NASA scientists said that they are excited to drill their first sample of the “fascinating location.”

Curiosity is currently one of two NASA spacecraft that are actively studying the Martian surface. The other is InSight, a stationary lander, which arrived on the planet last year.

Another Mars rover, Opportunity, was declared dead earlier this month after numerous attempts failed to bring it back to life. The solar-powered rover, which significantly contributed to NASA’s Mars mission for more than 14 years, died when a dust storm that lasted months blocked the Sun’s rays from reaching its solar panels.