Curiosity Rover Repaired

NASA/Reuters

The Curiosity rover has been unable to explore Mars for three weeks but is now “back on track,” the project manager said.

By HENRY FOUNTAIN

Published: March 19, 2013

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A NASA official said Tuesday that engineers had resolved the latest problem with the Curiosity rover on Mars and that the laboratory-on-wheels should resume science operations this week after a three-week delay.

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• Times Topic: Mars

“We’re back on track now,” said Richard Cook, the project manager for Curiosity at the space agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

Science observations by Curiosity, a $2.5 billion mission to explore Mars over two years, had been postponed since the end of February, when memory problems cropped up with one of the craft’s two identical computers. Engineers switched to the second computer while they worked on ways to avoid a recurrence of the problem.

On Saturday, just a day from finishing the troubleshooting work, the second computer suffered a software glitch and put itself into standby mode, Mr. Cook said.

Engineers came up with a solution for the latest problem in a couple of days. “Last night, we decided we could command it out of safe mode back into regular operations,” Mr. Cook said on Tuesday. “This morning, we got a confirmation that that happened.”

The engineers can now finish the original troubleshooting work and on Thursday, with both computers functional, start sending commands to the rover to operate its instruments.

Commands will be sent for only about two weeks, however, before a planned monthlong hiatus in rover operations. The Sun’s alignment between Earth and Mars could corrupt communication signals, which could damage the craft. Only a few instruments — for detecting weather conditions and radiation — will function during that period.

Curiosity landed near the Martian equator in August and has been exploring Gale crater, a 96-mile-wide depression formed by a meteor strike. The most recent findings, based on the analysis of ground-up rock obtained in the weeks before the rover was shut down, include conclusive evidence that Mars once had much water, and that it also has sulfur, nitrogen and other elements and minerals that could have supported life.

A version of this article appeared in print on March 20, 2013, on page A19 of the New York edition with the headline: Mars Rover Is Repaired, NASA Says.