Planetary Video

Planetary Society Hangout: March 7th, 2013 - What's Going On With Curiosity and a NASA Budget Update

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The Curiosity rover hit an unexpected snag last week and had to switch over to a backup computer. It's coming out of "Safe Mode" operations later this week, but JPL engineers are still trying to figure out exactly what went wrong.

We'll talk to Emily Lakdawalla, who's been following the story, about what happened, what it means for Curiosity, and how the team proceeds from here. There is also the small matter of a massive solar storm headed for Mars, which will make Curiosity hunker down for a few days, too.

Finally, we check in with the recent issues regarding NASA's budget, particular for Planetary Science. Sequestration is upon the U.S. government, and the House of Representatives just proposed a new budget to fund the government for the remainder of 2013. We'll talk about where we stand and how this uncertainty is effecting NASA's Planetary Science program.