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Mars rover faces contamination issues

Managers for NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory must resolve three serious issues before the rover can launch this autumn, according to a NASA Inspector General report released on Wednesday. The report states that the $2.5 billion rover’s rock and soil sample gathering system has potential contamination issues caused by oil leftover from the manufacturing of the system’s drill bits, and that two suites of software still have problems — one for the rover’s operation and navigation, and another that controls the way the rover recovers from temporary failures and faults. Furthermore, the report notes concerns with the way that the rover’s 

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