Curiosity Back to Active Status: NASA

NASA announced Monday that its Mars rover Curiosity has recovered from last week's computer glitch and has transitioned from safe mode to active status. The officials hope that the rover will resume its operations by next week.

On Feb. 28, a problem occurred with the memory of the main computer, due to which the engineers switched the rover to a minimal activity safe mode. According to JPL, the problem occurred due to a glitch in the flash memory that is associated with the current inactive computer. The switch took place at 2.30 a.m. PST, reports CS Monitor.

A Tweet was posted @MarsCuriosity: "Don't flip out: I just flipped over to my B-side computer while the team looks into an A-side memory issue."

Good progress is being made in the recovery. A part of the progress involves evaluating the A-side system that recently faced a problem so as to recover it as a backup. Apart from this, it is required to go through the series of steps linked to B-side system that involves sending information to the computer regarding the status of the rover including the position of its arm, the position of its mast and so on, reports Mars Science Laboratory Project Manager Richard Cook in a statement. 

What exactly caused the memory problems is yet to be determined. Reports according to Times Live state that, Curiosity's B-side system that is currently being used, was last used during the rover's nine-month journey from Earth to Mars.

The rover, which landed on the Martian surface Aug. 6, 2012, is on a two-year mission to check if Martian land supports the existence of microbial life.