The Mars rover Curiosity's groundbreaking mission came within an hour of ending just six months after touchdown, according to a report that aired last night (May 14) on the TV news show "60 Minutes."
In February 2013, a memory problem with Curiosity's main computer, also known as the pilot, forced mission team members to switch to the identical backup computer, or co-pilot. The swap worked, and the car-size robot resumed full science operations a few weeks later.
But the computer issue was far scarier than this breezy recap would suggest, according to the "60 Minutes" segment on CBS. [Amazing Mars Rover Curiosity's Latest Photos]
The pilot was supposed to recognize the problem on its own and cede control to the co-pilot automatically, said Rob Manning, chief engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, which manages Curiosity's mission. This didn't happen, however; the pilot acted like it had developed "an attitude," Manning told "60 Minutes" reporter Bill Whitaker.
More:
http://www.space.com/36841-mars-rover-curiosity-computer-glitch-60-minutes.html
