NASA’s Spirit rover, stuck in the Martian sand since May 6, has taken a picture of its underbelly to help mission engineers get a handle on the rover’s predicament.
Early last month, Spirit was continuing its journey around a low plateau called “Home Plate,” when it hit what one rover team member called an “insidious invisible rover trap.”
Since then, Spirit has been mired in the sandy soil up to its hubcaps, and rover engineers have been working to try to free the rover so that it can continue its now more than 5-year stint on the Martian surface.