14 DAY TRIAL // The resilient tiny Martian rover Spirit is currently facing some of the gravest challenges it has had to bear since arriving on the Red Planet, in 2004. With one wheel jammed since three years ago, it now runs the risk of becoming permanently stuck in the loose and very plastic soil its driving over. Recent attempts at driving the small, solar-powered robot forward have yielded little results, and mission controllers at NASA announce that its tiny wheels are about halfway buried in the sand. This means that, while the machine now gets more power from its power arrays, following some breezes that have cleared its solar panels, it's unable to use that power for anything else than communications and taking panoramic pictures of its surroundings.
For now, controllers have deemed it best to stop any attempts at moving the rover, and have moved to observing the properties of the terrain around it. Once sufficient data are collected, engineers will set up driving simulations at the space agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), in Pasadena, California. The facility has in its possession a rover that is identical to both components of the Mars Exploration Rovers (MER) mission, Spirit and Opportunity. Once all pieces of information are gathered, a simulation crew will reenact them in a test tank and assess further possibilities from there.
“Spirit is in a very difficult situation. We are proceeding methodically and cautiously. It may be weeks before we try moving Spirit again. Meanwhile, we are using Spirit’s scientific instruments to learn more about the physical properties of the soil that is giving us trouble,” JPL expert John Callas explained on Monday. He is also the project manager for the MER mission. “The improved power situation buys us time. We will use that time to plan the next steps carefully. We know that dust storms could return at any time, although the skies are currently clear,” he added.
Currently located in a feature known as the “Home Plate,” Spirit has driven about 122 meters (400 feet) from its winterly location to its current position. The last development in its situation is but the last problem in a long row, which has seen the tiny observatory experiencing bouts of amnesia. Its flash memory was damaged, most likely by a solar emission, which has forced its computers to repeatedly restart over the past few weeks. That situation is resolved now, but the machine seems plagued by bad luck. Conversely, on the other side of Mars, Opportunity is doing just fine.