Short Circuit Halts Curiosity Rover On Mars - NASA

The curious followers of the Curiosity rover on Mars may note that your favorite robot will not be functional for the next few days. NASA's informed that the rover is undergoing maintenance and detailed engineering analysis is being performed by team of experts; following an on-board fault detection on February 27. The telemetry received from the rover hinted at a possible short-circuit while the rover was transferring a sample material between devices on the robotic arm of the rover. As programmed, the rover halted its activity and sent the fault details to the ground control team.

NASA's Curiosity rover has been trolling the distant red planet since August 6, 2012 to search evidence of life. An important part of this process is to collect samples on the surface of the Mars and analyse them using on-board testing systems. Jim Erickson, project manager of the Curiosity project notes that the engineering team is running several tests in the present configuration of the rover before they move the robotic arm or drive the rover. The team is currently working to figure out the exact nature and location of the short-circuit.

Curiosity-Short-Circuit-Rover
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS​

The rover was transferring the rock powder it collected through drilling to the on-board lab instruments. Curiosity had earlier performed the same transfer about five times in the past in 2013 and 2014. We hope NASA team will figure out and fix the problem asap and get the rover working again.

Source: Testing to Diagnose Power Event in Mars Rover | NASA

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