Curiosity Mars rover halts all science operations because of glitch

Nasa's Curiosity mission has ground to a halt on Mars after a glitch forced the $2.5 billion (£2 billion) rover to terminate all of its science experiments. Mission team members say the inter-planetary science lab can no longer beam data stored in Curiosity's memory banks back to Earth, effectively rendering it useless until the issue is resolved. Researchers said they are unsure what triggered the computer glitch and that it could be'some time' before engineers manage to diagnose and fix the problem. Mission team members are also preparing to fire up the backup computer inside Curiosity, in case they need the separate system to diagnose the mysterious issue plaguing the main computer. It follows one of the biggest Martian dust storms on record, which at its peak covered covered 14 million square miles (36 million sq km), knocking out Nasa's solar-powered Opportunity rover for three months.