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Home / News / Tags / rovers
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On Sol 2092 (Saturday, November 21), the Spirit rover received a new set of commands to drive, as experts were trying to move ahead with the plan of extricating it from its trap. The robot drove into a patch of loose soil called Troy in late April, and the powder-like dust did not allow for it to move since. Only rec... |
24 November 2009
09:08 GMT |
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For the first time in more than six months, the rover Spirit took a tiny step towards freeing itself from the grasp of the loose patch of soil known as Troy. The powder-like sand was covered by a thin crust, which gave way as the robot was climbing a 12-degree slope, which led to a formation known as Home Plate. Engi... |
21 November 2009
03:40 GMT |
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Following Tuesday's attempt at moving the jammed rover Spirit, engineers and mission planners at the American space agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) have decided to upload a new set of commands into the robot's onboard computer earlier today. The machine has been stuck in a patch of loose soil ... |
19 November 2009
03:24 GMT |
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As most of you know, the rover Spirit has been stuck on the surface of Mars since May 6, when it drove straight into a patch of loose soil known as Troy. All efforts to free the robot resulted at the time in failure, so the scientists took to the lab, in an attempt to discover what the best course of action might be.... |
18 November 2009
02:58 GMT |
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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... |
17 November 2009
02:28 GMT |
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After recently making the rover “stretch” for the first time in six months, experts and engineers at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), in Pasadena, California, are currently making the last preparations for beginning their attempts at extricating Spirit from its predicament. The robot has been tra... |
13 November 2009
02:14 GMT |
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The battered exploration rover Spirit, which has been stuck in a patch of loose soil on Mars for the better part of the last six months, has recently wiggled its wheels for the first time. The move is the first since the robot became embedded in Troy, and represents the beginning of efforts to extricate the rover, wh... |
11 November 2009
06:03 GMT |
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A new “letter of intent” was recently signed in Washington DC, for the first time ever binding the Mars programs of the American space agency, NASA, and the European Space Agency (ESA) together. With this step completed, engineers can move to creating joint missions that could bring about a new understand... |
9 November 2009
03:42 GMT |
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Since May 6, the rover Spirit has been trapped on the surface of the Red Planet in a patch of loose soil known as Troy. The exploration robot, which has been driving backwards on only five wheels for the last three years, was climbing a 12-degree slope when its wheels got buried in the sand up to their hubcaps. After... |
6 November 2009
05:50 GMT |
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Scientists at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), in Pasadena, believe that we are on the verge of a new paradigm shift in space exploration, one that could see the replacement of single robotic explorers on or around a planet or moon with a fleet of instruments, all of them in constant communication wi... |
28 October 2009
06:29 GMT |
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Since May 6, the Mars rover Spirit has been trapped in Troy, a patch of loosely bound soil on the surface of the Red Planet. Engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), in Pasadena, California, who manage the robot, say that, over the past few months, a number of drive tests has been conducted with two test rov... |
20 October 2009
02:57 GMT |
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The last nine weeks have been very eventful for the Martian rover Opportunity, which has spent the first six of them looking at Block Island, a large meteorite it found on the surface of the Red Planet. After it looked at it from most possible angles – in a bid to provide its mission controllers with enough dat... |
13 October 2009
03:44 GMT |
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The European Space Agency's (ESA) flagship mission to the Red Planet, the ExoMars rover, has been delayed to 2018, after delegates from EU members states agreed to the proposition the space agency made. The 2016 launch window, for which ExoMars was originally planned, would be taken up by an orbiter and a small,... |
12 October 2009
09:38 GMT |
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In the Arizona desert, NASA recently showcased its latest lunar rover, a vehicle known as the Lunar Electric Rover (LER). Running entirely on electricity provided by batteries and fuel cells, the new instrument has a closed cockpit, which means that astronauts will no longer have to wear their bulky spacesuits, as th... |
17 September 2009
10:20 GMT |
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As the months go by, it becomes painfully obvious to all those involved with getting Spirit out of its predicament that it isn't going to be an easy task. Though they knew from day one that it was going to be very difficult to remove the rover from the loose patch of Martian soil called Troy, engineers at NASA&#... |
15 September 2009
02:34 GMT |
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The Martian rover Spirit remains blocked in its sandy patch of soil on the surface of the Red Planet, as an incoming dust storm continues to significantly reduce the amount of electricity the exploration robot is receiving. The average amount of sunlight Spirit was getting has now been blocked and, as a response, mis... |
27 August 2009
01:25 GMT |
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As we announced yesterday, NASA conducted today its first flight test for the new Inflatable Re-entry Vehicle Experiment, or IRVE, a spacecraft that was specifically designed to protect carrying vehicles from the rigor of a harsh atmospheric reentry. The success of the current test will determine whether or not it wi... |
18 August 2009
08:00 GMT |
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Engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), in Pasadena, California, announced yesterday that the test rover at the facility would undergo a full week of test trials starting next Monday, as the team attempts to discover the best possible methods of getting Spirit unstuck. The Martian rover is stuck in a patch ... |
14 August 2009
09:49 GMT |
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According to mission managers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), in Pasadena, California, the powerful NASA-operated Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) was finally pulled off of the backup computer it was forced to relay on last week. Its main systems exhibited a bizarre error, which sent the spacecraft in safe m... |
12 August 2009
02:36 GMT |
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In its trek on the surface of Mars, the rover Opportunity has recently come across an ancient meteor, made almost entirely out of metal, according to investigators at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), in Pasadena, California. The peculiar formation is currently helping planetary scientists gain a deeper insight in... |
11 August 2009
20:01 GMT |
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While shifting through the data beamed back by the rover Opportunity from the surface of the Red Planet, scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), in Pasadena, California, discovered a dark, oddly shaped rock sitting right in the path of the rover. According to preliminary analysis reports, it may be that th... |
4 August 2009
01:38 GMT |
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In the specially designed sandbox at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), in Pasadena, California, Mars Exploration Rovers engineers are looking at all possible rover movement options, in order to determine the most appropriate sequence of getting Spirit out of Troy. Yesterday, the experts analyzed if modifying the s... |
22 July 2009
16:41 GMT |
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With the Mars Exploration Rovers (MER) component Spirit stuck in Martian soil since May 6th, a team of engineers at the NASA-operated Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in Pasadena, California, which also doubles as the control crew for the rover and its twin, Opportunity, is currently engaged in a valiant effort to simulate... |
8 July 2009
06:25 GMT |
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With NASA's Spirit rover stuck in loose Martian soil since May 6th, its mission control team at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in Pasadena, California, is working around the clock to recreate the exact conditions on the Red Planet inside a test sandbox, using an exact replica of the MER rover. Because engineers ... |
27 June 2009
04:12 GMT |
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The Spirit Martian rover is rising up to its name, NASA has announced recently. Despite being stuck up to its hubcaps in loose soil, the robot continues to do relevant science, taking pictures of its surroundings, and also of Troy, the patch of Earth that trapped it on May 6th. While engineers at the Jet Propulsion L... |
26 June 2009
04:22 GMT |
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The European rover of the ExoMars mission, scheduled for launch in 2016, is one of the largest robotic exploration vehicles ever created, and also among the most complex ones. However, because of soaring costs associated with the mission, the manager decided to drop one of the planned instruments from the program, so... |
16 June 2009
19:41 GMT |
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The ambitious design of the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) has sparked, since it first appeared, criticism as to the number of instruments it includes, and also on account of its size. Quite simply put, the MSL, which has recently been appropriately named Curiosity, is the largest rover ever to be sent to the Red Plan... |
16 June 2009
04:47 GMT |
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With Spirit trapped in loose Martian soil since May 6th, engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in Pasadena, California, are working around the clock to mimic the conditions of the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) in their test facilities. Spirit and Opportunity are not the only MER components, as mission pl... |
10 June 2009
13:21 GMT |
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On Wednesday night, the main computer on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) unexpectedly rebooted, under the puzzled faces of mission controllers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), in Pasadena, California. At 9:10 pm EDT (01:10 June 4 GMT), the craft rebooted and entered 'safe mode,' a state that al... |
5 June 2009
16:01 GMT |
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After becoming stuck in the loose Martian soil of the Troy region, NASA's Mars Exploration Rover (MER) Spirit has recently taken its first pictures of its underside, in a move that has been simulated back on Earth, and with its twin robot Opportunity as well. At this point, researchers have no clue as to how the... |
5 June 2009
03:37 GMT |
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After a contest that lasted between November 2008 and January 25th, 2009, the American space agency finally declared a winner, and announced the name of the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission to the Red Planet, which is scheduled for take-off in 2011. The winning submission came from 12-year-old Clara Ma, a studen... |
28 May 2009
14:01 GMT |
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After driving around Mars' Victoria Crater for a good part of its mission, the rover Opportunity was finally able to beam back sufficient images for experts to piece together and propose a hypothesis on how the entire area came to look the way it does now. Two years of observations by the persistent rover have s... |
22 May 2009
15:31 GMT |
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The Spirit rover is currently in a “sticky” situation, so to speak, having been trapped inside a very soft area of soil on the Red Planet since May 7th. After several attempts to get the robot to move in any direction, Mars Exploration Rovers (MER) mission controllers decided to temporarily halt all drivi... |
19 May 2009
10:29 GMT |
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Despite the fact that the twin robots of the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) mission have advanced our knowledge of Mars so much that we can't really quantify it, engineers at NASA are annoyed by the fact that they can't make the little robots go into steep gullies, or other similar geological formations, for ... |
19 May 2009
02:44 GMT |
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On Thursday, the Spirit Mars rover took its first drive since April 8th, when it started exhibiting “memory problems.” Confronted with bouts of amnesia, as in problems with its flash drive, the tiny robot was unresponsive to commands for a while, and rebooted its onboard computers a few times. On April 23... |
25 April 2009
04:40 GMT |
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According to officials at the American space agency, the Spirit robot, part of the Mars Exploration Rovers mission, is currently suffering from what humans would call amnesia. In other words, it fails to “remember” data that have been previously recorded. At the same time, it seems reluctant to provide it... |
21 April 2009
08:10 GMT |
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Man's presence on Mars these days is absolutely amazing – two rovers that operate since 2004, a lander that was able to conclude without a doubt that water existed on mars, and an orbiter capable of surveying and analyzing the surface of the planet with the same accuracy as Earth-orbit observation satellit... |
16 April 2009
09:20 GMT |
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Officials at NASA have recently announced that the tiny Mars exploration rover (MER) Spirit is in doubtful “health,” on account of the fact that readings coming in from the robot have revealed that the craft has rebooted its onboard computers twice over the last weekend. Engineers and mission specialists ... |
14 April 2009
05:41 GMT |
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Over the past few weeks, Spirit has been making its way to the Goddard and Von Braun features, having departed the “Home Plate” plateau, where it spent the rugged Martian winter. Looking back with its cameras, the robotic probe took snapshots of its own trails, sending back images that took NASA by surpri... |
1 April 2009
10:51 GMT |
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The American space agency's plans for future missions on the Red Planet seem to be in serious trouble, as NASA is currently dealing with an increased criticism from people saying that the costs associated with exploring Mars are simply too great, as related to the benefits. In addition, our neighboring planet is... |
24 March 2009
03:34 GMT |
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NASA's enduring Spirit rover is currently faced with a navigational problem, in that its path over a portion of Martian soil known as the Home Plate is obstructed by piles of loose rocks. These formations are very dangerous to the frail machine, so mission managers have decided to take the long way around, simpl... |
6 March 2009
03:42 GMT |
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Experts from NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander team have announced recently that they may have just discovered the first evidence of liquid water on the Red Planet. According to pictures sent back by the spacecraft, one of the machine's legs is covered with what appear to be tiny droplets of liquid. Over the weeks... |
18 February 2009
02:20 GMT |
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The American space agency really outdid itself with the latest development in rover technology. Placed alongside Spirit or Opportunity, Axel, the newest member of the family, looks nothing like its predecessors. For one, it's very, very small, and it is not designed to walk on its own. Rather, it resembles a lar... |
14 February 2009
06:01 GMT |
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A new scientific study now seeks to bring further information about the mounds identified on Martian soil, which last spring had astronomers buzzing with excitement, because they could have very well been remnants of or even active hot springs, not unlike those found at the Yellowstone national park, in the US. If th... |
13 February 2009
03:46 GMT |
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On Saturday, experts at NASA finally resumed breathing, after the Mars rover Spirit eventually snapped out of its mysterious set of problems and started moving on the Martian surface again, following several days of not recording any images and not moving a single inch. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in ... |
4 February 2009
06:59 GMT |
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The endurance displayed by NASA's Mars twin rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, has been nothing but good news for astronomers and other scientists. Nearly 250,000 images were transmitted between the two planets in their 5 full years of operation. Originally scheduled to last a couple of months, their missions quick... |
16 January 2009
09:25 GMT |
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The twin geologic rovers that were deployed more than 5 years ago on Mars, NASA's Spirit and Opportunity, managed to survive their fifth season on the Red Planet, despite the fact that they were expected to last less than 3 months in the frigid winter that their unfamiliar surroundings offered. Now, having survi... |
5 January 2009
04:31 GMT |
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Designed to operate for only 90 days, driving across the red surface for almost four years and experiencing multiple mechanical failures, Spirit now hits another problem. While heading towards a slop which was supposed to ensure the optimal angle for collecting sunlight, the rover got stuck in what NASA thinks might ... |
28 November 2007
03:57 GMT |
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The dust storm on Mars has been going on for nearly a month and is now blocking around 85 to 90 percent of all sunlight to the surface. If it doesn't calm down in more than two weeks, the two NASA rovers on the surface, Spirit and Opportunity, will run out of power and will go permanently offline.Scientists don... |
21 July 2007
05:01 GMT |
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