14 DAY TRIAL // Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) mission controllers at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, announce that the spacecraft has just recovered full functionality following a glitch that affected its main computer less than a week ago. The orbiter is now back to conducting science over the Red Planet, and has resumed relay data from other Martin missions back to Earth.
A significant error occurred aboard the Martian satellite on Sunday, March 9, when engineers detected an unscheduled swap from the main computer aboard the spacecraft to the second one. The reasons why this happened remain unknown, and will probably never be revealed. MRO has thus far entered safe mode four times, and mission controllers have never been able to figure out why.
Following a few days of hard work, JPL investigators were able to restore MRO to full functionality on Thursday, March 13. The team reports that the orbiter has now resumed collecting scientific data via its onboard instruments. The spacecraft also began relaying communications and science data from other Martian missions, including the rovers Curiosity and Opportunity, back to Earth.
The orbiter plays an important role in Martian orbit, coordinating a number of other missions, including the two active NASA rovers on the surface and the Mars Odyssey spacecraft in orbit. MRO is used as a data relay since its solar panels allow it more access to solar energy than the exploration robots on the surface can produce.