14 DAY TRIAL // The Martian rover Spirit has finally freed itself from the patch of loose soil, in which it had remained stuck for about two weeks, and it might encounter similar terrain in its journey towards a spot that will ensure the necessary amount of sunlight. As a result of a sand storm that raged on the Mars surface, for about a month in the last summer, Spirit's solar panels have been covered with a thin layer of dust, that prevented them from collecting the sunlight needed in order to power its instruments over the next winter.
Due to this fact, NASA decided to send the rover in a region where a slop would provide the necessary angle and would optimize the energy gathering procedures. Though the twin rover, Opportunity, situated on the other side of the planet, has also been affected by the sand storm, the general area where it has been located provided constant gusts of wind, cleaning its solar panel.
Said and done. Spirit was put on the move and scheduled to arrive at the designated location, in January next year. However, it got stuck, in the middle of the month of November, in loose soil, which NASA nicknamed "Tartarus", after the name of a dungeon described in the Greek mythology.
In the hope that they would finally succeed to get the vehicle out of its trap, controllers on Earth uploaded a series of instructions, and on the 28th of November, after a few short drives, it climbed out of the spot.
The path that the rover will follow from its current position, takes it about 25 meters towards the north edge of the Home Plate, over similar treacherous terrain. It is expected that during the drive, in the next weeks, towards the so-called "Winter Haven 3" location, the rover will encounter a sandy and rocky valley, in the west edge of the Home Plate, the 90-metre-wide raised plateau that has been studied for a few months now, which will require delicate maneuvering.
The deadline, for the arrival on the 25 degree slop in the north end of the Home Plate, is 1st of January 2008, after which the vehicle will lose all power, if it doesn't reach the designated location. Due to the fact that its solar panels are covered with dust, Spirit is running on about 310 watt-hours of power per day, whereas in 2004, when the vehicle landed on the Martian surface, it was able to produce 900 watt-hours of power.