New Delhi | Jagran News Desk: After leaving for an exploration mission to the Red Planet, Mars 2020, the spaceship carrying the NASA’s next-generation Mars rover perseverance is now back online after facing technical difficulties and was temporarily running on essential systems only.

“Data indicate the spacecraft had entered a state known as safe mode, likely because a part of the spacecraft was a little colder than expected while Mars 2020 was in Earth’s shadow,” NASA was quoted as saying to the news agency AFP on Thursday.

NASA said that the temperatures are now normal as the spaceship had left Earth’s shadow. Informing about the safe mode, NASA stated that whenever a vessel enters safe mode, it shuts down all but essential systems run until it receives new commands from mission control.

“Right now, the Mars 2020 mission is completing a full health assessment on the spacecraft and is working to return the spacecraft to a nominal configuration for its journey to Mars,” confirmed NASA.

According to the NASA Mars 2020 mission website, “The team which is controlling NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover has received telemetry (detailed spacecraft data) down from the spacecraft and has also been able to send commands up to the spacecraft,” said Matt Wallace, the mission’s deputy project manager.

Moreover, Wallace provided a detailed update on two issues during launch operations. The first issue concerning the proximity of the spacecraft to Earth immediately after launch and the second was a transient event involving temperature on the spacecraft. 

Matt said that the spaceship entering safe mode was not overly concerning and the team based at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, has confirmed that the spacecraft is healthy and on its way to Mars.

Mars rover Perseverance blasted off from Florida’s Cape Canaveral on Thursday at 4:50 a.m. PDT (7:50 a.m. EDT) to search for traces of potential past life on the Red planet.

Posted By: Simran Babbar