On Friday, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) stated that its car-sized robotic rover, Curiosity, has been experiencing intermittent short circuits in its robotic arm. According to the United States space agency, it could limit the rover's drilling of rocks.

The space agency had launched Curiosity on November 26, 2011, from Cape Canaveral to explore Gale Crater on the Red Planet.

Currently, the rover is at the base of an 18,000-foot-tall mountain on the planet. Objective of the rover is to help scientists in understanding how changes in rocks at different levels of the mountain have changed the Mars' climate over time. Rocks of the mountain are made of different layers of remains dating to a time when the Red Planet was warm and wet.

According to the space agency, the rover is experiencing short circuits in its robotic arm, which could affect drilling of rocks on the planet. When the rover was experiencing the problem, scientists related with the mission noticed an increase of current. As per the scientists, they found that surge of current was automatically stopping the rover from working. It also stopped the rover from taking commands from earth. The first time when the sensors picked up this problem, the rover was shaking a sample of rock powder. It had to transport the sample to the onboard chemical laboratory.

As per reports of the New York Times, the rover has used the same process of drilling in five drilling efforts in 2013 and 2014 and that time, the rover didn't experience any problem. During the rover's first test after the power surge, it had no problem. In the second test, the rover experienced a small surge that lasted for a fraction of a second.

The scientists have now planned to resume moving the rover's arm as early as next week.