Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)

I think the biggest issue here is that the sand Spirit is stuck in is extremely fluffy and hard to compress with the limited functions and tools of the rover. Regular sand has so much more traction than what Spirit is in, which is basically a very fine powder. It's possible their best chance is another stroke of luck with the dust devils. But it's... Read More a miracle they've been active so long in the first place, so we can't act surprised if they say they have to accept that it'll be stationary until shut-off next year.

The landing target areas in the candidate landing sites for the Mars Science Laboratory are much smaller than the ones for Spirit and Opportunity. That's because the landing technology is different. The newer technology was selected so that a potential MSL landing site can have a smaller expanse of terrain assessed to be safe. Being able to land within a smaller target area allows a much greater choice of landing sites.

That's really cool! Are there a lot of sites on Mars that scientists would be extremely interested in exploring but cannot because of the terrain? Something like a Mars equivalent to the Grand Canyon, for example. If so, would the only reliable way to explore them be through manned exploration or could near/far future rovers do it?

is it tru that mars would be the next earth after they emitt green house gas for 100 years?too far from now!?hahahaha!

Why JPL, the PUBLICLY MISLEADING illustration, c'mon, Please try to give the populace more credit than that?
I challenge you JPL, to start a "Citizen of Earth " Campaign first, easy to be a planetary citizen for a planet so far way, what about right here? Opps, This challenge most likely runs contrary to your organization somehow. Forget I mentioned it.

I've got my fingers crossed for Spirit. Been obsessively checking the news for updates.

I think future rovers should have some sort of jack on the bottom of the rover than can come down and lift the rover up, possibly rotating the wheels as the jack meets the ground to help clear away sand or other materials over the. The jack could then lower the rover back down and the wheels would no longer be covered. Just a thought.

I wonder, is it possible to use spirit robotic arm to give it a push while driving attempt. Even when the arm gets broke it's better to have free rover without working arm than a stuck one. But then is it possible JPL guys did't think about the arm ...

Greg, here are answers to your questions from Mars rover driver Scott Maxwell:

If attempts to extract Spirit are unsuccessful, possible topics for investigation might include climate monitoring, Marsquake monitoring, further examination of the soil layers within reach of the robotic arm, precise radio tracking to explore the geodynamics of Mars, deep thermal inertia measurements of rocks and soils around the rover, and other long-term observations.

We did explore driving at different times of day and didn't find evidence that there would be any significant difference in the soil's behavior. We even briefly considered driving at night, which isn't quite impossible but is very difficult for a solar-powered rover! Because we don't get data from the rovers until the end of their day, we only know if clouds were present *yesterday* -- we never know if they're around *right now* -- so even if we had some reason to think that the soil might be different when there were clouds in the sky, we'd always be a day late in taking advantage of it.... Read More

We did consider driving Spirit in ways that would pivot around the right front wheel (that's the broken one). While a related idea remains one of our backup plans, it had several flaws that led to our dropping it from consideration as our primary approach. Think about what the back wheels do if we pivot around the front. If we pivot clockwise, then the rear wheels go downhill into the fluffy stuff that has trapped Spirit's left side, and they'll probably get trapped as well. If we pivot counterclockwise, then the back wheels must climb a relatively steep slope, one that we think is too steep for her to successfully climb. We identified several other problems with the approach as well, but it is at least appealing in that Spirit doesn't have to fight her broken wheel as much. We think other strategies have a better chance of success and we're going to try them first, but it's not impossible that we'll end up trying something very much like what you describe if those other approaches don't pan out.

I believe it! We are supposed to get 200 mm of rain in the next 24 hours on the west coast of Vancouver Island. Looks like that will happen.

Thanks!