Leonard David's INSIDE OUTER SPACE

Selfie of NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover at a drilled sample site called “Okoruso.”
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA’s Curiosity is sitting on Mars, soaking up sun, deep into Sol 1395 since landing on the Red Planet back in August 2012.

But the Mars machinery early on Sol 1389 entered “safe mode” – likely due to a software problem that remains a challenge to engineers and software specialists here on Earth.

Six sols later, rover pictures of its surrounding landscape are no-shows.

Down time

I queried JPL’s spokesman, Guy Webster, on Curiosity’s overall status.

Is this the longest down time of the rover to date?

Webster advised Inside Outer Space:

Curiosity went from Sol 200 to Sol 215 without taking any images, after an unplanned computer side-swap on Sol 200. The rover didn’t really get back to science until Sol 222.

“I’m not sure whether that’s been the longest gap in image-taking — there may have been longer ones during conjunction periods — but it’s longer than the current stretch of concentrating on getting diagnostic information rather than new observations. There have been no new images taken since Curiosity entered safe mode on Sol 1389, so no new raw images to include in the downlinks this week.”

Last Picture Shows: Thumbnail Data Products – Front and Rear Hazard Avoidance Cameras (Hazcams) images for Sol 1388; Left and Right Navigation Cameras (Navcams) images for Sol 1388
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Fixes afoot?

So how’s it looking for Curiosity…in the big picture? Real trouble or are fixes afoot?

“Diagnostic work is proceeding, with all of the files identified as priorities now transmitted and received,” the statement from Webster explains. “The investigation so far has provided confidence that the cause of the anomaly does not represent a safety risk to the vehicle.”

Bottom line of the Webster communiqué: “Engineers are optimistic about resuming science observations and transmission of science data in coming days.”