Glitchy NASA Mars Curiosity rover gets back to science

NASA's Curiosity rover snapped this image with its front hazcam on Oct. 13.

NASA/JPL-Caltech

Things are looking a little rosier for NASA on the red planet.

The Mars Curiosity rover encountered a problem in mid-September that prevented it from properly sending stored data back to Earth. This put an unexpected halt to the machine's science operations as NASA worked to sort out the problem and switch the rover to a backup computer.

This memory anomaly is still under investigation, but the Curiosity team said Friday that it'll resume limited science operations.

One interesting development is that the mission team is taking images with an engineering camera that hasn't been used since 2013.

NASA is also once again posting raw images from Curiosity's cameras, including a view from a front hazard-avoidance camera that shows the rocky landscape at Vera Rubin Ridge.

Curiosity's return to science is a welcome piece of good news for NASA, which is still trying to regain contact with the Mars Opportunity rover. Opportunity went into hibernation in June after a dust storm blotted out its solar panels and it hasn't been heard from since.

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