Nasa accepts Spirit Mars rover 'stuck for good'

The US space agency (Nasa) has conceded defeat in its battle to free the Spirit rover from its Martian sand trap.

The vehicle became stuck in soft soil back in May last year and all the efforts to extricate it have failed.

Nasa says Spirit, which landed on the Red Planet just over six years ago, will now live out its remaining days as a static science station.

Full Story here:
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8481798.stm



Seanie.

Seanie_Morris wrote:

live out its remaining days as a static science station.

I'd say those Nasa boys will come up
with ingenious ways to still do good science
stuck or not.
Still, what a legend of a machine!

Frank_Ryan_jr wrote:

I'd say those Nasa boys will come up
with ingenious ways to still do good science
stuck or not.
Still, what a legend of a machine!

On the call the other night the main thing they were talking about was being able to determine whether there was any liquid core in Mars; something that they have not been able to do with other stationary landers due to the radio frequencies that were used. Also being able to monitor the same area over time, and it is stuck in an interesting area, means that they can get a better understanding of how weather affects a spot over time. Thats if it survives the winter. Squyres and co. seemed reasonably optimistic about its future science capabilities anyway.

Atleast its a mechanical problem and not a serious electrical failure, the machine can still do a job.