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fork(2) [soylentnews.org] writes:

      From Space.com [space.com]:

NASA's Mars rover Curiosity went into a precautionary "safe mode" over the Fourth of July weekend, but the robot is currently stable and communicating with its handlers back on Earth, space agency officials said.

Curiosity put itself into the minimal-activity safe mode on Saturday (July 2), for reasons that engineers are still trying to tease out.

"Preliminary information indicates an unexpected mismatch between camera software and data-processing software in the main computer," NASA officials wrote in a status update today (July 6). "The near-term steps toward resuming full activities begin with requesting more diagnostic information from Curiosity."

The car-size Curiosity has entered safe mode three times before -- all in 2013 -- and bounced back fully every time.

      Also reported at:

Gismodo [gizmodo.com]
      JPL [nasa.gov]
      AOL [aol.com]
      Mars Daily [marsdaily.com]
      ..and a host of others

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