NASA's Curiosity rover powered down to wait out a Mars-bound solar flare, complicating efforts to bring the robotic explorer back from a computer glitch. Curiosity's handlers put the rover on standby after the sun unleashed a medium-strength flare in Mars' direction March 5. It was the second recent shutdown for Curiosity, which had just come out of protective "safe mode" March 2 as engineers work through an issue with its primary computer system. "Storm's a-comin'! There's a solar storm heading for Mars. I'm going back to sleep to weather it out," NASA officials wrote on behalf of the rover via Curiosity's Twitter feed March 6. The rover team views the shutdown as merely a precaution, as Curiosity was designed to withstand such solar outbursts. But the move could delay the rover's return to science operations.
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