Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter’s Rebooting Resembles February Event

MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
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http://www.jpl.nasa.gov

Guy Webster 818-354-6278
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. June 4, 2009
guy.webster@jpl.nasa.gov

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Mission Status Report

Rebooting Resembles February Event

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is in safe mode and in
communications with Earth after an unexpected rebooting of its computer Wednesday
evening, June 3.

The spontaneous reboot resembles a Feb. 23 event on the spacecraft. Engineers concluded the
most likely cause for that event was a cosmic ray or solar particle hitting electronics and
causing an erroneous voltage reading.

Jim Erickson, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion
Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., said, "The spacecraft is sending down high-rate engineering
data, power positive, batteries fully charged, sun pointed and thermally safe. The flight team
is cautiously bringing the orbiter back to normal operations. We should be resuming our
exploration of Mars by next week."

The reboot occurred at approximately 6:10 p.m. PDT (9:10 p.m. EDT) on June 3. This is the
sixth time since the spacecraft's August 2005 launch that it has entered safe mode, which is its
programmed precaution when it senses a condition for which it does not know a more specific
response.

#2009-095

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