NASA also reported that scientists discovered a scientific instrument onboard Curiosity that is not working correctly. It's the first report of an instrument that is not working normally.

One of Curiosity's weather-sensing instruments -- its Rover Environmental Monitoring Station (REMS) - is damaged. The instrument, which sits on the rover's 7-foot-tall mast, isn't sending back good data. Though NASA scientists say they may never know what happened, they suspect it was damaged by rocks and debris kicked up by Curiosity's landing engines.

The damaged instrument means NASA won't be able to get as complete a picture of Mars' weather as scientists had hoped, since the rover will have difficulty sensing wind speed and direction.

Sharon Gaudin covers the Internet and Web 2.0, emerging technologies, and desktop and laptop chips for Computerworld. Follow Sharon on Twitter at , on or subscribe to . Her email address is .

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