NASA’s Mars Curiosity Rover is getting recovery from the last week’s computer problem

Last Thursday, scientists found the problem with the flash memory on Curiosity’s primary “A-side” computer, thereby Rover went to the less-activity “safe mode”.

On Saturday, the 1-ton robot came out of the safe mode and started using the high-gain antenna a day later.

“We’re out of safe mode and are back with an operable high-gain antenna, which is one of the big steps in the recovery,” said Curiosity project manager Richard Cook, of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

Engineers are still working on the rover’s backup “B-side” computer for surface operations.

“We are making good progress in the recovery,” said Mars Science Laboratory Project Manager Richard Cook, of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. “One path of progress is evaluating the A-side with intent to recover it as a backup. Also, we need to go through a series of steps with the B-side, such as informing the computer about the state of the rover — the position of the arm, the position of the mast, that kind of information.”

Engineers are still working on the cause of the problem, which could be the cosmic rays.

Thanks for the well wishes! I’m out of “safe mode” and expect to resume full operations next week. go.nasa.gov/Vws8Lb

— Curiosity Rover (@MarsCuriosity) March 5, 2013