Curiosity Rover out of Standby Mode and Fully Operational Now: NASA

NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity is back to work after spending over a week in safe standby mode. Mission controllers on earth spent a long time to solve the mysterious glitch. Now, the rover is fully operational again, as per a statement by NASA.

The car-sized rover became fully operational on Monday. It came out of standby mode on July 9. The glitch was a software mismatch. It had affected transfer of image data on board, as per NASA.

Like other space probes, Curiosity has in-built features that take it into safe mode when a serious glitch is found. It operates on that mode until mission controllers on earth do not fix the problem. Curiosity, which has been exploring the Red Planet since about four years, entered the safe last week.

“Science activity planning for the rover is avoiding use of that mode, which involves writing images from some cameras’ memories into files on the rover’s main computer. Alternate means are available for handling and transmitting all image data”, explained the space agency.

This isn’t the first time when the NASA rover has encountered such a problem. In the past, Curiosity entered standby mode three times. In additions, it has gone through situations like losing focus of camera, broken arm and stranding. Yet, mission controllers succeeded in overcoming these problems.

The rover’s mission on Mars began when it landed at Gale Crater in August 2012. In just one year, it made breakthroughs like finding regions that had fresh-water lakes in the past and Martian conditions that could support life.