Status Report: Spirit Still Unresponsive

Researchers at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), in Pasadena, California, have just released the latest report on Spirit's condition on Mars. According to the scientists, who manage the mission for the space agency's Science Mission Directorate, in Washington, DC, the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) component is still unresponsive, and half-buried at Troy. The machine fell pray to the sand trap in May 2009, and all efforts of freeing it have since failed, SpaceRef reports.

While driving towards a landscape feature known as Home Plate, where it was supposed to spend this winter, the explorations robot punched through a thin crust of sand, and into a trap below. The soil in the area is very powdery, and JPL experts have likened to some sort of flour. One of Spirit's wheels, the front right one, was already nonoperational, and another got completely stuck in the sand as well. With only four functional wheels, the machine could not possibly defeat the trap, called Troy.

As such, NASA decided to reorient the machine as much as possible before the Martian winter set in, and positioned Spirit so that it made the most of all available sunlight. NASA officials reclassified the mission from a rover to a static science platform, and the robot went into hibernation mode shortly afterwards. The last communication between Mission Control and the robotic explorer took place on March 22, 2010, or Sol 2210. It is currently Sol 2330 (a Martian Day equals 24h 37m), and Spirit is not expected to make contact for another few months. And that will only happen if the machine survives yet another winter.

The Martian southern winter solstice took place on May 13, 2010, and the power levels the rover is getting are expected to improve. Still, at least a couple of months will pass before the robot accumulates sufficient power to wake up. Even if that is achieved, and the machine tries to communicate with Earth, it could be that it will trigger a mission clock fault. If this scenario takes place, Spirit will drop all activities until enough energy is stored in its batteries. The machine has traveled 7,730.50 meters (4.80 miles) since landing on Mars in 2004.