Mars rover stuck in soft ground
Posted: Tue, May 12, 2009, 8:06 AM ET (1206 GMT)
The Mars rover Spirit has gotten stuck in a patch of soft ground, and project officials said it may be weeks before they can attempt to extricate the venerable spacecraft. JPL said in a statement Monday that the rover had been slipping in soft soil recent, halfway burying its five working wheels. Engineers are studying ways to get the rover out of that soil patch without further burying it, a process that could take weeks. Spirit's twin, Opportunity, got stuck in a sand dune several years ago but was able to free itself after several weeks. Spirit, which has been operating for over five years despite being designed for only a 90-day mission, has also experienced a series of computer glitches last month, although those problems have not recurred recently.
The Mars rover Spirit has gotten stuck in a patch of soft ground, and project officials said it may be weeks before they can attempt to extricate the venerable spacecraft. JPL said in a statement Monday that the rover had been slipping in soft soil recent, halfway burying its five working wheels. Engineers are studying ways to get the rover out of that soil patch without further burying it, a process that could take weeks. Spirit's twin, Opportunity, got stuck in a sand dune several years ago but was able to free itself after several weeks. Spirit, which has been operating for over five years despite being designed for only a 90-day mission, has also experienced a series of computer glitches last month, although those problems have not recurred recently.
Related Links:
| <<previous article | next article>> |
|
news in brief
|
|
NASA to launch Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope in September
Posted: Sat, Apr 25 10:54 AM ET (1454 GMT) |
|
news links
|
|
Sunday, April 26
OCCAM Space and The Exploration Company Partner on Separation System for Nyx Capsule
Occam Space — 11:55 am ET (1555 GMT) New simulations reveal the cold, dusty reality of galaxy formation
Netherlands Research School for Astronomy — 11:55 am ET (1555 GMT) MDA Space unveils space control platform MDA Midnight™, designed to defend and protect the space domain
PR Newswire — 11:54 am ET (1554 GMT) Voyager Unlocks Satellite Propulsion Production at Scale
Voyager Space — 11:53 am ET (1553 GMT) Sceye Completes Historic 12-Day, 6,400 Mile Stratospheric Flight, Advancing a New Layer of Infrastructure for Humanity
PR Newswire — 11:51 am ET (1551 GMT) |
