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Monday June 8, 2009
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NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has rebooted its main computer and entered a protective safe mode, Space.com reports--possibly after a hit by a solar particle or cosmic ray. The glitch may be similar to the one that the orbiter encountered in February, which had put a hold on NASA's science work at the time.
"The flight team is cautiously bringing the orbiter back to normal operations," orbiter project manager Jim Erickson at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., said in a statement. "We should be resuming our exploration of Mars by next week."
The report said that the orbiter is continuing to beam back data and otherwise appears fine. This is the sixth time the orbiter has entered safe mode since its launch from Earth in 2005. Last month, NASA began to employ a different orbiter, Odyssey, to help "unstick" the stuck Spirit Mars rover on the surface of the red planet.
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