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| Mars Curiosity rover put into 'safe mode' after glitch | Mars Curiosity rover put into 'safe mode' after glitch |
| (about 4 hours later) | |
| Nasa's Curiosity Mars rover has been put into "safe mode" after a computer glitch caused by corrupted files. | Nasa's Curiosity Mars rover has been put into "safe mode" after a computer glitch caused by corrupted files. |
| The robot, which is analysing rock samples on the Red Planet, is now running from a back-up computer. | |
| Nasa engineers are looking into possible causes for the files on the robot's flash memory being damaged. | |
| The fault means the rover's work has been put on temporary hold while the back-up computer is reconfigured so it can take full control. | The fault means the rover's work has been put on temporary hold while the back-up computer is reconfigured so it can take full control. |
| "We're still early on in the process," said project manager Richard Cook, in an interview with Space.com. | "We're still early on in the process," said project manager Richard Cook, in an interview with Space.com. |
| "We have probably several days, maybe a week, of activities to get everything back and reconfigured." | |
| The rover has been running on the back-up computer since Thursday. | The rover has been running on the back-up computer since Thursday. |
| "We switched computers to get to a standard state from which to begin restoring routine operations," Mr Cook said. | "We switched computers to get to a standard state from which to begin restoring routine operations," Mr Cook said. |
| On the robot's Twitter feed, Nasa wrote: "Don't flip out: I just flipped over to my B-side computer while the team looks into an A-side memory issue." | On the robot's Twitter feed, Nasa wrote: "Don't flip out: I just flipped over to my B-side computer while the team looks into an A-side memory issue." |
| The corrupted files may have been caused by stray cosmic rays. | The corrupted files may have been caused by stray cosmic rays. |
| Speaking to Space.com, Mr Cook said: "The hardware that we fly is radiation-tolerant, but there's a limit to how hardened it can be. | Speaking to Space.com, Mr Cook said: "The hardware that we fly is radiation-tolerant, but there's a limit to how hardened it can be. |
| "You can still get high-energy particles that can cause the memory to be corrupted. It certainly is a possibility and that's what we're looking into." | "You can still get high-energy particles that can cause the memory to be corrupted. It certainly is a possibility and that's what we're looking into." |
| The timing of the glitch would frustrate Nasa as Curiosity had just begun analysing rock samples, the BBC's science correspondent, Jonathan Amos, said. | The timing of the glitch would frustrate Nasa as Curiosity had just begun analysing rock samples, the BBC's science correspondent, Jonathan Amos, said. |
| Samples from Mars' surface had been ingested into the rover's on-board laboratories last month. | |
| Our correspondent added that the back-up computer on the rover had previously been used to test software updates before they were installed on the main machine. | Our correspondent added that the back-up computer on the rover had previously been used to test software updates before they were installed on the main machine. |
| Due to capacity limitations on the craft, the rover launched with only the software needed to land. Once on the planet, new software had to then be installed remotely. | Due to capacity limitations on the craft, the rover launched with only the software needed to land. Once on the planet, new software had to then be installed remotely. |