Mars rover stuck in a rut

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Photo by NASA

Since landing on Mars to begin its planned 90-day mission on January 3, 2004, the Spirit rover has provided NASA with unprecedented information on the geology and atmosphere of the Red Planet. But scientists say its days may be numbered.

Although it's still operational, Spirit has become stuck in deep sand, rendering it immobile. Spirit has been trapped at this location on the west side of a crater known as "home plate" for the past nine months. On Wednesday, NASA scientists said they're running out of maneuvers for getting Spirit's wheel unstuck.

In this image taken June 2, 2009, we can see how Spirit has become immobile, with its wheel stuck in a fine soil. Using the microscopic camera mounted on the soil sampler arm, Spirit took this panoramic image of the situation currently challenging its operators back on Earth.
"The highest priority for this mission right now is to stay mobile, if that's possible," said Steve Squyres of Cornell University and principal investigator for the rover project.

If scientists cannot free Spirit soon, they will give up and instead try to improve its tilt. Collecting more sunlight would give the solar-powered rover more time and energy with which to attempt to escape the sand trap. And, NASA says, it would at least keep the onboard instruments powered so it can collect data from its current location.
But time is not on Spirit's side. It's trapped in the southern hemisphere of Mars, where it is currently autumn and the amount of sunshine reaching it is steadily declining. Unless the tilt can be improved or winds clear off some of the dust that has collected on the solar panels, Spirit could run out of the power it needs to make more escape attempts, or "extraction activities," as early as January. By May, Spirit might not have enough power to remain in operation.
Here, Spirit turns its camera backward to view its own tracks.

 

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The view from the Spirit rover looking north, back along its path, from the point where it got trapped last April. The rover is believed to be straddling the rim of a hidden crater. Note the front-left wheel, nearly buried in powdery soil.

In an attempt to understand the conditions under which Spirit has become stuck, NASA team members have created a test setup that simulates the situation the rover faces in a soil patch on Mars called Troy.

This area was named "Rub al Khali" after a similarly desolate area in Saudi Arabia.

The 0.35-inch hole drilled into this rock, called Clovis, is the deepest one driven into a Martian rock.

Since losing the use of its right-front wheel in 2006, Spirit has been forced to move backward. Looking back after moving 22.7 meters on the 1,861st Martian day (on March 28, 2009), we can see the bright soil churned up by dragging the immobile wheel.

 

[milindasenarath]

is it still trapped?

 

[nismok]

is it still trapped?

Ya, Still Stucked

 

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Beginning January 18, NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter will listen for possible radio transmissions from the Phoenix Mars Lander, which hasn't been heard from since November 2008.

Phoenix completed its original three-month mission in 2008 and even extended its work two months longer than originally planned. However, the lander's hardware was not designed to survive the temperature extremes and ice-coating load of an arctic Martian winter, so any signs of life from the craft will be a welcome surprise to NASA.

In the summer of 2008, NASA got its big payoff from the Phoenix lander--the confirmation of water on Mars. "We have water," William Boynton of the University of Arizona, lead scientist for Phoenix's Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer, said at the time. "We've seen evidence for this water ice before in observations by the Mars Odyssey orbiter and in disappearing chunks observed by Phoenix last month, but this is the first time Martian water has been touched and tasted."
A 30 centimeter-thick layer of carbon dioxide frost that has blanketed the lander and its surrounding terrain throughout the winter is now thawing. This image, taken on January 6, 2010, by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, shows the Phoenix lander emerging from the seasonal frost.

The Odyssey orbiter will pass over the Phoenix landing site approximately 10 times each day during three days this month, and it will conduct two longer listening campaigns in February and March.
But hopes are dim. Chad Edwards, chief telecommunications engineer for the Mars Exploration Program at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said, "We do not expect Phoenix to have survived, and therefore do not expect to hear from it. However, if Phoenix is transmitting, Odyssey will hear it."
In this HiRISE image taken during the previous Martian summer, we can clearly see the three main pieces of hardware at the landing site before the winter frosts set in.
At the top is the parachute attached with strings to the backshell, which slowed the craft's descent. The dark dot near the lower left is the heat shield that protected the lander during its descent. The lander itself is seen near the bottom, with its solar panels now fully extended to power its science operations.

 

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During the mission's 124th Martian day, or sol (our September 29, 2008), this image was taken with the Surface Stereo Imager on the Phoenix lander.

There's little on Mars that could be considered cuddly, but there's no reason not to get at least a little cutesy about the inanimate objects. Perhaps that notion explains NASA's nickname for the rock in the middle of this picture: Winkies.
This snapshot was taken by the lander's Surface Stereo Imager camera on Sol 151 of the mission (October 27, 2008), and is among the last from the lander before its final communication about a week later, on November 2, 2008.
In the foreground of the false color image is a rock with the less winsome name of Quadlings. Temperature readings on Sol 151 were bracing--a daytime high of minus 50 degrees Fahrenheit and an overnight low of minus 128F.

Using data from the lander's lidar system, NASA produced this graphic profile of a Martian cloud spotted on Sol 99 (September 3, 2008). Says NASA, "The vertical streaks at the base of the cloud on the right of the image show ice crystals falling from the cloud, similar to snow.
The streaks are curved, as the winds are faster at about 3 kilometers (almost 2 miles) than at higher altitudes. Scientists are able to determine that the snow is water-based and not carbon dioxide snow, since temperatures on Mars are currently too warm to support the latter."

This composite view combines more than 500 images taken by the lander's Surface Stereo Imager camera, providing a view of the Phoenix craft from above.

This is the lander's Thermal and Electrical Conductivity Probe. Measurements taken by the TECP helped researchers determine that water was exchanged between soil and atmosphere.

After digging into the Martian soil and collecting samples, Phoenix placed the soil onto the Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer, seen in the center of this mosaic of images. On the left is an instrument used for microscopy, electrochemistry, and conductivity analysis.

In this mosaic of images taken by the lander's camera, we can see several trenches dug by Phoenix to analyze the history of the region.

This shadow-enhanced false color image, taken a week earlier, shows the "Snow White" trench, on the eastern end of Phoenix's digging area.

 

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appa.. apa radey..