Safe mode is a protective operational state that an unmanned spacecraft enters automatically when it encounters a software glitch, hardware failure, or unexpected environmental hazard. In this state, the vehicle shuts down all non-essential systems, including scientific instruments, to conserve power. It then points its solar panels toward the sun and its high-gain antenna toward Earth, awaiting diagnostic commands from mission control.
Heard on the job
We lost telemetry during the solar flare, and the orbiter has dropped into safe mode.
Also heard as
- safing