A short circuit has temporarily rendered Nasa 's Curiosity rover inactive as engineers investigate the problem . The Mars rover stopped work when an electrical problem was discovered while it was using its arm to move powder into its sample container . The severity of the problem is not yet known , but Nasa said they expected to resume operations in several days if it can be resolved . A short circuit occurred in the rover 's arm as it was moving . Nasa engineers in California are now investigating the problem . The rover ( shown here in a recent mosaic image taken by its arm ) had been transferring rock powder into a sample analysis container . 'We are running tests on the vehicle in its present configuration before we move the arm or drive , ' said Curiosity Project Manager Jim Erickson , of Nasa 's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena , California . 'This gives us the best opportunity to determine where the short is . ' The short circuit occurred while the rover was moving its arm on 27 February . When the rover detected the anomaly , it stopped the movement of its arm . Nasa said that such a brief short could have little effect on rover operations , or it 'could prompt the rover team to restrict use of a mechanism ' . Quite how much lasting damage the short will have caused , if any , is not yet known . On Twitter the official account for the rover , @ MarsCuriosity , said : 'Call me Johnny Five . Some ops on hold while my team investigates a short circuit . ' The rover 's top speed is 1.5 inches ( 3.8 centimetres ) per second . Curiosity is the fourth rover to visit Mars . It took around seven minutes to land on the Red Planet . The rover is fitted with 17 cameras . It weighs about the same as a Mini Cooper at approximately 2,000lb ( 900kg ) . Scientists considered 60 possible landing sites before deciding on Gale Crater . The fault occurred while the rover had been transferring rock powder collected by its drill on the arm to laboratory instruments on the rover . This powder was taken from a rocket target called Telegraph Peak . Curiosity has successfully analysed five samples from drilling targets before in 2013 and 2014 , but this is the first time this problem has arisen . On this particular occasion , Curiosity revealed the true colour of Mars was not red - but blue and grey . By drilling a few centimetres into the ground , the drill dug up material that had a different colouration to the surface . The fault occurred while the rover had been transferring rock powder collected by its drill on the arm to laboratory instruments on the rover . This powder was taken from a rocket target called Telegraph Peak . The material appears blueish-grey , seen here , because it had not yet oxidised in the Martian air . The reason is that Mars is mostly made of silicon and oxygen , and also contains significant quantities of iron , magnesium , aluminium , calcium and potassium . When the soil is exposed to the air it oxidises and 'rusts ' , giving it its red appearance . 'We 're sort of seeing a new colouration for Mars here , and it 's an exciting one to us , ' Joel Hurowitz , sampling system scientist for Curiosity at Nasa 's Jet Propulsion Laboratory ( JPL ) , said in a statement . This raw-color view from Curiosity 's Mastcam shows the rover 's drill just after finishing a drilling operation at Telegraph Peak on 24 February 2015 . Three days later , a fault-protection action by the rover halted a process of transferring sample powder that was collected during this drilling . On Twitter the official account for the rover , @ MarsCuriosity , said : 'Call me Johnny Five [ pictured ] . Some ops on hold while my team investigates a short circuit . ' One of the reasons for the particularly different colour might be the large amounts of silicon that were dug up , as analysed by the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer ( APXS ) on the rover . 'When you graph the ratios of silica to magnesium and silica to aluminium , 'Telegraph Peak ' is toward the end of the range we 've seen , ' said Curiosity co-investigator Doug Ming , from the Nasa Johnson Space Centre in the US . 'It 's what you would expect if there has been some acidic leaching . We want to see what minerals are present where we found this chemistry . ' Curiosity is now continuing to climb Mount Sharp , at the centre of Gale Crater , to look back into the geological history of Mars - and analyse soils at different altitudes . The rover had been transferring material to the Sample Analysis at Mars ( Sam ) instrument , seen here in a previous image taken by Curiosity . It has successfully analysed four drill samples before , but has not yet experienced this short circuit failure .
A short circuit occurred in the rover 's arm as it was moving . It had been transferring rock powder into a sample analysis container . However an electrical problem then caused the rover to stop operations . Nasa engineers in California are now investigating the problem . If it can be solved the rover should begin operations again in several days .