Mars Orbiter Glitch Stalls Science for Weeks

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Hello Mars, Meet 'MR. O': The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter passes over the planet's south polar region in this artist's concept illustration. The orbiter's shallow radar experiment, one of six science instruments on board, is designed to probe the internal structure of Mars' polar ice caps, as well as to gather information planet-wide about underground layers of ice, rock and, perhaps, liquid water that might be accessible from the surface. Phobos, one of Mars' two moons, appears in the upper left corner of the illustration. Image (Image credit: NASA/JPL/Corby Waste)

NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter will be kept in its safemode ? suspending its science observations of the red planet for several weeks? while engineers try to investigate what is plaguing the spacecraft.

The 4-year-oldorbiter has mysteriously rebooted its main computer three times this year,most recently onAug. 26. It also inexplicably switched to a backup computer last month in a different malfunction.

Space.com Staff
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