It's bad, but not as bad as it sounded in the first place. Lots of fine techies are working the problem with the terran copy of Spirit to try to duplicate the glitch and then provide workarounds. (This is true of all long-range spacecraft sent by NASA. Even Galileo had a terran-bound duplicate for such purposes.)
The first step is replaying all commands sent prior to the malfunction. Then comes the process of ruling out causes one-by-one. Then comes ruling out causes-in-combination. It's a painstaking process to say the least.
"Safe mode" probably sounds like a really bad thing to most folks, but it's really not. Those who remember the Galileo mission will recall that the craft went into safe mode several times during the course of its work (and even had a total failure of its high gain antenna), yet the mission was still a success.
I still hold great hope for Spirit. And I'll still be holding my breath when Opportunity goes into the final stages for landing tomorrow night.
I too hold out hope.
Given the politics of today, I grow tired of hearing and seeing power hunger politicians that care only about reelection and private agenda's. This is real, put together by some of America's best, brightest, best educated people that are on a historical exploration of another world.
On a side note, I can never quite understand American's that mock great American explorations by posting endless, humorless quips and juvenile cartoon pictures and images. I guess I just don't see the humor watching a major project, that is now having considerable difficulty, that so many worked so hard for, be the brunt of jokes. I guess I feel the focus of jokes and mocking should be directed at those in DC. Except for anger from the people, they deserve little else. End of rant.