The Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity, which has been on the Red Planet's surface since Jan. 25, 2004, is having to get a flash memory makeover for its on-board computer.

After an increasing series of computer resets -- each of which takes one or two days to complete -- have ended up hampering the rover's scientific progress, members of the mission team back on Earth have decided to reformat the robotic probe's flash memory, which keeps data even when the computer's power turned off, explained a news release issued by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

Flash memory is the type of computer functioning used for storing photos and songs on smart phones or digital cameras.

After repeated use, individual cells within a flash memory block can wear out.

Reformatting clears the memory while at the same time identifying bad cells and flagging them to be avoided.

"Worn-out cells in the flash memory are the leading suspect in causing these resets," John Callas, project manager for the rover mission at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, said in a statement. "The flash reformatting is a low-risk process, as critical sequences and flight software are stored elsewhere in other non-volatile memory on the rover."

The twin rovers Spirit and Opportunity each landed on Mars in early 2004 to carry out missions that actually were only planned to last three months.

Both rovers logged important discoveries about the Red Planet's apparently wet past.

Spirit functioned for six years until 2009, when mission controllers determined it had gotten stuck in soft soil.

Ultimately, Spirit could not be freed from its position even after months of various maneuvers; its final communication to Earth was received on March 22, 2010.

Opportunity, however, is still active and apparently continues to function relatively well.

The rover project reformatted the flash memory on Spirit five years ago to stop a series of so-called "amnesia" events Spirit had been experiencing.

The flash memory reformatting planned early next month will be the first Opportunity's had to receive.

Preparations for the reformat include downloading back to mission control all useful data remaining in the flash memory and switching the rover to an operating mode not reliant of the flash memory.

Meanwhile, the mission team also plans to restructure Opportunity's communication sessions to use a slower data rate -- which may add improve the rover's ability to recover from any reset that occurs during the reformatting preparations.