* Astronomy

Blobrana · L

RE: Mars Exploration Rover Spirit

Blobrana · L

NASA's Mars rover Spirit, lodged in Martian soil that is causing traction trouble, is taking advantage of the situation by learning more about the Red Planet's environmental history.
In April, Spirit entered an area composed of three or more layers of soil with differing pastel hues hiding beneath a darker sand blanket. Scientists dubbed the site "Troy." Spirit's rotating wheels dug themselves more than hub deep at the site. The rover team has spent weeks studying Spirit's situation and preparing a simulation of this Martian driving dilemma to test escape manoeuvres using an engineering test rover at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

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Blobrana · L

The Mars rover Spirit is keeping scientists' spirits up by doing some science while it is stuck in soft soil on the Red Planet.
The rover has been immobile, trapped hub-deep since May 6. Engineers have replicated the landscape in a lab back home and, using an identical rover model, tried to figure out what to do, so far to no avail.

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Blobrana · L

NASA plans to fill a 'sandbox' with simulated Martian soil this week to test escape manoeuvres for the Mars rover Spirit, which has been stuck in a sand trap called "Troy" since early May.
When the rover first became stuck, its wheels slipped so much in the fine, flour-like soil that Spirit moved just centimetres despite the fact that its wheels had rotated enough to move it about 10 metres away. Mission managers then stopped trying to drive the rover, whose wheels had already become buried halfway into the loose soil.
NASA now hopes to begin testing possible escape strategies this week, using a mock-up of the sand trap.

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Blobrana · L

Mars Exploration Rovers Update: Spirit Sand Snared and Dusted, Opportunity Rests and Roves

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Image taken by the Spirit rover on Sol 1886

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Credit NASA

Blobrana · L

NASA's rover project team is using the Spirit rover and other spacecraft at Mars to begin developing the best manoeuvres for extracting Spirit from the soft Martian ground where it has become embedded.
A diagnostic test on May 16 provided favourable indications about Spirit's left middle wheel. The possibility of the wheel being jammed was one factor in the rover team's May 7 decision to temporarily suspend driving Spirit after that wheel stalled and other wheels had dug themselves about hub-deep into the soil. The test over the weekend showed electrical resistance in the left middle wheel is within the expected range for a motor that has not failed.

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Blobrana · L

NASA's Spirit Mars rover is so deeply stuck in the sand that its belly may be resting on underlying rocks, which could hamper efforts to extricate it. Mission members say it will probably take weeks before they make any headway in freeing the rover.

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Blobrana · L

The five wheels that still rotate on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit have been slipping severely in soft soil during recent attempts to drive, sinking the wheels about halfway into the ground.
The rover team of engineers and scientists has suspended driving Spirit temporarily while studying the ground around the rover and planning simulation tests of driving options with a test rover at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California.

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