Flash memory issue forces Curiosity rover into safe mode

NASA's Curiosity rover on Mars—doing science, still alive.

NASA

The Mars rover Curiosity is switching over to a backup computer after a corrupted file caused the primary, "A-side" computer to glitch. On Wednesday, February 27, the rover failed to send its daily data dump back to Earth and switch into sleep mode. Mission Control made the decision to switch Curiosity over to its backup computer and suspend its scientific work for a few days.

"Don't flip out: I just flipped over to my B-side computer while the team looks into an A-side memory issue," NASA posted on the rover's Twitter account.

Like most spacecraft, Curiosity has two computer systems on board. The A-side computer is used for daily operations and the B-side is used as a backup. Until the B-side computer has been updated with the data necessary to assume control of the rover, Curiosity will sit on the Martian surface in "safe mode."