LOS ANGELES -- A NASA spacecraft orbiting Mars is in safe mode
after it detected a problem. The Mars Odyssey, which has been
circling the red planet since 2001, noticed something odd with
one of its gyroscope-like devices that helps control its
orientation and entered standby mode as a precaution Thursday
evening. It's a common action for spacecraft to take when
something unexpected occurs. In safe mode, Mars Odyssey ceases
science activities but is in contact with Earth. "The spacecraft
is safe, and information we've received from it indicates the
problem is limited" to that one part, mission manager Chris
Potts of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory said in a statement
Friday. Engineers are troubleshooting the problem and drawing up
a plan to resume normal operations before August when NASA's
newest rover, the one-ton Curiosity, was scheduled to land near
the Martian equator to begin a two-year investigation. The
longest-running Mars spacecraft, Mars Odyssey has gone into safe
mode several times in the decade