NASA hit a bump in its long road to space exploration, specifically with its Curiosity rover that is currently roaming(or not) the surface of Mars. The Mars rover experienced an electrical malfunction last week and the mission is currently on hold in order for the robot to be assessed by the mission engineers.
On February 27 NASA’s Curiosity robot encountered a “transient short circuit” which led to the rover’s temporary stop. The incident happened while Curiosity was conducting a transfer of sample powder to its body via Curiosity’s robotic arm.Steps in order to determine what is the root of this problem are being made.Mission Project Manager Jim Erickson who represents the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory had this to say regarding the glitch: “We are running tests on the vehicle in its present configuration before we move the arm or drive.”
NASA is determined to find out what stopped Curiosity from ticking and the tests conducted could take several days until we know what went wrong.Curiosity was able to explore from September 2014 up until now portions of the base of a Martian mountain nicknamed mount Sharp which is 3.4 miles (5.5 kilometers) high.While we don’t know for sure what damage Curiosity experienced due to the glitch, NASA explains in its statement that a problem such as this may not be an immediate danger for the rover yet it depends on which systems are affected:”A transient short in some systems on the rover would have little effect on rover operations. In others, it could prompt the rover team to restrict use of a mechanism.”
The Curiosity rover is currently NASA’s frontrunner in ancient habitable enviroment exploration on Mars.It has made contact with the surface of the planet in August 2012 with one quesstion in mind: was Mars able to support microbial life in the past?With a budget of $2.5 billion behind its back, Curiosity is without a doubt an important means of putting our “curiosity” to rest.