NASA Mars exploration managers at the Jet Propulsion Lab, in California, are pondering whether or not to command the Spirit rover to back out over its own tracks in an attempt to free the bogged rover.
The compacted soil could be stronger and allow the Spirit rover to free itself. NASA managers say it will take weeks to free the rover, and cautioned the attempt may not work at all.
December 1st, 2009
Mars rover Spirit may back track its way out of being stuck Alabama Live
November 23rd, 2009
Stuck Mars Rover Finally Budges, a Little
NASA’s stuck Mars rover Spirit took a tiny step Thursday, its first progress in months, during the latest attempt to extricate the robot from deep Martian sand.
On Thursday, Spirit inched forward slightly after its second attempt to drive out of the patch of sandy soil called Troy, in which it has been mired since April.
The rover successfully completed the first of two commands to spin its wheels for a period equivalent to driving 8.2 feet (2.5 meters). The attempt moved Spirit’s center forward by about half an inch (1.2 cm), left by about 0.3 inches (7 mm), and about 0.2 inches (4 mm) down.
November 13th, 2009
NASA Unveils Plan To Unstick A Mars Rover
NASA has announced a plan to extricate its rover Spirit, which has been stuck in a Martian sand trap since April. The space agency will begin transmitting commands to the exploration robot on Monday. Based on tests conducted on Earth this spring that simulated conditions at the Martian site, researchers do not expect the effort to be quick or easy. “This is going to be a lengthy process, and there’s a high probability attempts to free Spirit will not be successful,” said Doug McCuistion, director of the Mars Exploration Program. “Mobility on Mars is challenging, and whatever the outcome, lessons from the work to free Spirit will enhance our knowledge about how to analyze Martian terrain and drive future Mars rovers,” McCuistion said. “Spirit has provided outstanding scientific discoveries and shown us astounding vistas during its long life on Mars, which is more than 22 times longer than its designed life.”
November 12th, 2009
Skirting an Obstacle
This view from the navigation camera on NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity shows tracks left by backing out of a wind-formed ripple after the rover’s wheels had started to dig too deeply into the dust and sand of the ripple.
November 12th, 2009
NASA Unveils Plan to Free Stuck Mars Rover Spirit
Months of planning are finally coming to fruition: NASA engineers are ready to begin trying to maneuver the plucky rover Spirit out of its sandy trap on Mars.
Mission managers are sober about the prospects for freeing Spirit. They will send the first commands to the rover to try to move on Monday, “but this process could take quite awhile if it’s possible at all,” said Doug McCuistion, director of the Mars Exploration Program at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C.
The new plan will command Spirit to try to backtrack and use the tracks it left before getting stuck to make the escape attempt.
Spirit has been stuck in a spot of soft, sandy dirt (called “Troy”) on the Martian surface since April when it broke through what mission scientists call a “dirt crust” — a hard top layer of dirt disguising a layer of soft, talcum powder-like material below.
“Spirit did the equivalent of falling through the ice over a frozen pond,” McCuistion said.
November 11th, 2009
Mars rover battles for its life New Scientist
NASA’s twin Mars rovers have outlasted their planned three-month missions for so long that they seem indestructible. Nearly six years on, their presence on the Red Planet is taken for granted, as if they are immutable parts of the Martian landscape.
But we may soon have to confront a new reality. Spirit, which has always suffered more hardships than Opportunity, is facing its toughest challenge yet. When New Scientist went to press, the rover was set to begin a risky push to free itself from a sand trap it has been mired in for six months. Mission engineers say it may not survive the attempt. “She’s in a very precarious situation, and we don’t know for sure if we’re going to get her out,” says rover driver Scott Maxwell of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California.
November 2nd, 2009
Spirit Embedded in Soft Soil on Mars as Engineers Devise Methods to ‘Free Spirit’
This view from the panoramic camera on NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Spirit shows the terrain surrounding the location called “Troy,” where Spirit became embedded in soft soil during the spring of 2009. The hundreds of images combined into this view were taken beginning on the 1,906th Martian day (or sol) of Spirit’s mission on Mars (May 14, 2009) and ending on Sol 1943 (June 20, 2009).
Near the center of the image, in the distance, lies Husband Hill, where Spirit recorded views from the summit in 2005. For scale, the parallel tracks are about 1 meter (39 inches) apart. The track on the right is more evident because Spirit was driving backwards, dragging its right-front wheel, which no longer rotates.
October 31st, 2009
Amnesia-Like Behavior Returns on Spirit
Until Oct. 24, NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover had gone more than six months without an episode of amnesia-like symptoms like those that appeared on four occasions earlier this year.
In these amnesia events, Spirit fails to record data from the day’s activities onto the type of computer memory — non-volatile “flash” memory — that can retain the data when the rover powers down for its energy-conserving periods of “sleep.” The reappearance of this behavior in recent days might delay the start of planned drives by Spirit geared toward extricating the rover from a patch of soft soil where its wheels have been embedded since April.
Spirit sent data Oct. 24 through Oct. 27 indicating that the rover was not using its flash memory. The rover also has alternate memory (volatile, random-access memory) where data can be saved for communicating to Earth if the communication session comes before the next sleep period. Spirit remains in communication with Earth, maintaining good power and temperatures.
October 2nd, 2009
Opportunity Finds Another Meteorite
NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has found a rock that apparently is another meteorite, less than three weeks after driving away from a larger meteorite that the rover examined for six weeks.
Opportunity used its navigation camera during the mission’s 2,022nd Martian day, or sol, (Oct. 1, 2009) to take this image of the apparent meteorite dubbed “Shelter Island.” The pitted rock is about 47 centimeters (18.5 inches) long. Opportunity had driven 28.5 meters (94 feet) that sol to approach the rock after it had been detected in images taken after a drive two sols earlier.
Opportunity has driven about 700 meters (about 2,300 feet) since it finished studying the meteorite called “Block Island” on Sept. 11, 2009.
September 27th, 2009
Fading Rover Tracks Near Victoria Crater NASA/JPL/University of Arizona
This image has an interesting perspective because of the oblique viewing geometry. In addition, the tracks of the Opportunity rover are visible just north of Victoria.