NASA's Mars Curiosity rover stopped collecting data this week while engineers investigated an electrical issue found last weekend, according to Space.com.
On Nov. 17, a mission team found a change in the voltage difference between the body of the rover and its electricity-distributing power bus.
"The vehicle is safe and stable, fully capable of operating in its present condition, but we are taking the precaution of investigating what may be a soft short," Curiosity project manager Jim Erickson, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., said in a statement.
The team thinks that the issue was a soft short, which is an electrical leak through "partially conductive material" according to Space.com.
As of Nov. 22, Curiosity is still standing down temporarily while engineers figure out what caused the issue to prevent it from happening again.
The voltage difference between Curiosity's power bus and chassis was approximately 11 volts since the rover touched down on Mars in August 2012. The difference dropped to around 4 volts on Nov. 17, according to the team members.
If the issue was caused by a soft short, more troubleshooting may be required sometime in the near future.
"Soft shorts reduce the level of robustness for tolerating other shorts in the future, and they can indicate a possible problem in whichever component is the site of the short," NASA officials said this week.
Curiosity went into safe mode earlier this month after an unanticipated software reboot. Experts don't think the two events are related.
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