I think it's reasonable to say that it is operating autonomously and is currently "bricked" as a colloquialism. There's a certain helplessness for NASA in this

I think it's reasonable to say that it is operating autonomously and is currently "bricked" as a colloquialism. There's a certain helplessness for NASA in this case, which is similar to bricking one's device. Instead of hoping that the repair shop can fix it, they have to hope that their engineering foresight was adequate.