NASA has
successfully revived its powerful Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter from a protective
slumber following a glitch that silenced its science observations last week.
The
spacecraft, which has been orbiting Mars since 2006, resumed
its work to map and observe the red planet on Tuesday after days of
hibernating in a precautionary safe mode.
"Engineers
brought the spacecraft out of the standby mode on June 6," said mission managers at
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., in a statement. "Cameras
and other scientific instruments resumed operation June 9."
The Mars
orbiter went
on standby on June 3 after suddenly rebooting its main computer in a malfunction
engineers suspect was caused by a hit from a stray cosmic ray or solar
particle.
It was the sixth
time the orbiter has entered safe mode, which is a self-defense mechanism that
allows the spacecraft to essentially shut down and await instructions from
Earth when a situation arises that its autonomous functions do not have a
specific response for, mission managers said.
NASA
engineers initially thought the culprit behind the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's
recent computer malfunction was similar to the source of a Feb. 23 glitch,
which they attributed to a cosmic ray or solar particle hitting the spacecraft's
sensitive electronics and causing a false power spike reading. But now they are
not so sure.
"Engineers are
re-investigating possible root causes for both events," mission managers said. "The
new investigation includes reconsidering the likelihood of erroneous voltage
readings resulting from cosmic rays or solar particles hitting an electronic
component."
NASA's Mars Reconnaissance
Orbiter launched in 2005 and arrived at the red planet a year later. It is the youngest orbiter
currently circling the planet and has beamed home more data about Mars than all
other Mars missions combined, NASA officials said.
The $720 million orbiter
completed its initial two-year mission in 2008 and is currently in the midst of
an extended mission that runs through 2010. In addition to mapping and
observing Mars, the orbiter's high-powered main camera has been hunting for
potential landing sites for NASA's next big mission, the nuclear-powered Curiosity
rover, which is slated to launch in 2011.
While engineers worked to
recover the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, another team is drawing plans to haul
the waylaid Mars
rover Spirit out of a deep sand dune on the planet's surface.
Spirit has been stuck up to
its six hubcaps in deep sand for more than a month, though its robotic twin Opportunity
is currently doing well on the other side of Mars. Both long-lived rovers have
been exploring
Mars since they landed on the planet in 2004.
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