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 a few days .
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 .
work when an electrical problem was discovered 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 by its arm) had been transferring rock powder into a sample analysis container . 'We are occurred while the rover had been transferring