First Drive Commands Sent to Spirit

Stuck on the surface of the Red Planet for more than six month, the rover Spirit was finally going to begin its complex and long-lasting extrication procedure, scientists at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory announced. They said that the first commands to the resilient robot had been sent late last night or would be sent early this morning, and the craft would begin to move shortly afterwards. The drive will not see Spirit moving straight ahead out of its predicament, but taking small steps in doing so, covering tiny distances with each drive, Space reports.

Earlier this month, the JPL MER Project Manager, John Callas, said that the effort to free the exploration robot might take months to complete. Officials at the lab were also very upfront about the fact that Spirit might not be released from its sandy trap at all. A number of unexpected things may happen and, in spite of the engineers and drivers working attentively on moving the machine, it may remain stuck for good. Spirit's wheels are caught up to their hubcaps in loose Martian sand, in a patch of soil that has been named Troy.

The rover's condition is made even more difficult by the fact that it has been driving backwards for the past three years. One of its front wheels is broken and lifted off the ground, and JPL mission controllers cannot rely on it for anything. Callas revealed last week that the main approach the team was going to take to this issue was trying to move Spirit backwards on exactly the same path it had taken before entering Troy. The engineers believe that that 12-degree slope on which the rover is currently resting may also be used to their advantage, adding the force of gravity to that of the wheels and motors inside the robot.

The earliest results from the test are scheduled to come in today, and the JPL team will spend at least a day analyzing them, before sending any other commands towards Mars. Experts worry that a rock may be sitting right below Spirit's underbelly, and that any false move could set the rover on it, essentially curbing all chances of it ever being removed from Troy. The scientists also need to take into account the fact that the machine is very old, as it approaches its sixth year on Mars. Both Spirit and Opportunity have endured in the planet's rough conditions and on the surface for 24 times their planned duration, so, regardless of what happens to the stuck rover, the mission is a massive success.