14 DAY TRIAL // Officials at the American space agency announce that one of their longest-running spacecraft, the Mars Odyssey, has entered safe mode around the Red Planet, after encountering an error. NASA representatives say they intend to bring the vehicle up and running again in no-time.
At this point, things are a bit unclear. What scientists controlling the mission do know is that one of the three reaction wheels on Odyssey – the devices used to stabilize the vehicle as it travels through space – began giving off anomalous readings on June 8.
Protective measures installed in the vehicle's computer automatically triggered a safe mode, in order to prevent any additional damage from occurring. “The spacecraft is safe, and information we've received from it indicates the problem is limited to a single reaction wheel,” NASA expert Chris Potts says.
“The path forward is evaluating the health of the reaction wheel and our options for proceeding,” Space quotes the expert as saying. Potts is Odyssey's mission manager, at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in Pasadena.