NASA’s Curiosity rover up and running again [UPDATED]

   Update (3/13/2015): According to NASA scientists, Curiosity is once again moving under its own power, having successfully transferred the material its robotic arm was holding into the appropriate analysis device. The team at NASA hasn’t restored the arm to full function yet, but has determined that the rover is safe to drive. Curiosity is now headed up the slopes of Mt. Sharp as it analyzes the mountain’s geology and hunts for telltale signs that life exists — or once existed — on the Red Planet(The original story continues below.

Curiosity’s long-term scientific mission has been on hold since February 27, when a short-circuit froze the robotic arm and put the kibosh on further research. Scientists and engineers working at NASA believe they have isolated the problem, however, and hope to have the rover back online and fully functional by early next week. On February 27, Curiosity was transferring sample powder from its robotic arm to other instruments when it detected what NASA characterizes as a “transient short circuit.” While this lasted less than 1/100 of a second, it was enough to trip the circuit breakers in the rover.

Curiosity self-portrait, with Mount Sharp in the background

Since February 27, the rover has been in partial shutdown while engineers tested various facets of the design to find the problem. On Thursday, the problem reoccurred — it appears to be within the subsystem that operates the drill’s percussive action. NASA officials note: “The rover team plans further testing to characterize the intermittent short before the arm is moved from its present position, in case the short does not appear when the orientation is different,” they wrote in the statement. “After those tests, the team expects to finish processing the sample powder that the arm currently holds and then to deliver portions of the sample to onboard laboratory instruments.”

Curiosity’s drill isn’t just a rotating bit — it includes a percussive element to literally hammer into rock as well. A short in this subsystem could prevent the drill from operating at peak efficiency or restrict its operation to specific kinds of material. It might also mean that the drill can only be operated when the robotic arm is in certain positions. The long-term impact on Curiosity’s operation is still unclear. Much of Curiosity’s mission at Mount Sharp, including its detection of organic chemicals and a rise and fall in local methane levels, have relied on the operation of its drill. NASA’s ability to squeeze additional performance out of failing equipment is legendary, however, and this short-circuit is not expected to prevent Curiosity from continuing to explore the Red Planet.

Opportunity will be pausing to study these “odd rocks”.

In related Mars news, Opportunity’s memory reformat appears to have gone smoothly. We haven’t checked in with Curiosity’s older, smaller cousin since last September, when we covered the news that NASA would attempt to reformat the rover to solve a creeping reboot problem believed to be caused by bad flash memory. Opportunity doesn’t get the same press as Curiosity, but the little rover recently found some “odd rocks” (NASA’s term) that it’s paused to investigate. The big, dark-gray rocks are apparently unusual for this area, and Opportunity will check them out before resuming its trek.