Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter science operations resume
Tue Aug 11, 2009 at 08:21 UTC
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has been restored to full operations, making intensive science observations of Mars, four days after it unexpectedly switched to its backup computer.
The mission's engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., and at Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, successfully transitioned the orbiter out of limited-activity "safe" mode on Saturday, Aug. 8, and resumed use of the spacecraft's science instruments on Monday, Aug. 10, at 21:32 UTC.
The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter had spontaneously swapped from its "A" side computer and subsystems to the redundant "B" side on Aug. 6. Engineers are investigating the root cause for that event, which bore some similarities to side swaps by the orbiter in 2007 and 2008.
| Source: Jet Propulsion Laboratory | |
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