Spirit marks sixth anniversary with uncertain future
Posted: Mon, Jan 4, 2010, 5:53 AM ET (1053 GMT)
NASA's Mars rover Spirit marked its sixth anniversary on the Red Planet Sunday night as controllers struggled to free the aging spacecraft from a sand trap. Spirit landed in Gusev Crater on Mars on the night of January 3, 2004, and has spent the following six years exploring the region. Since April, though, the spacecraft has been stuck in sandy soil after the rover broke through a crusty surface layer. Efforts to free the rover are ongoing, but have been hampered by problems with two of the rover's six wheels. Project officials said that if they're unable to free the rover, they hope to at least improve its tilt to maximize the amount of sunlight on its solar panels as the next Martian winter approaches. In a worst-case scenario the rover may not be able to generate enough power to remain in operation as early as May.
NASA's Mars rover Spirit marked its sixth anniversary on the Red Planet Sunday night as controllers struggled to free the aging spacecraft from a sand trap. Spirit landed in Gusev Crater on Mars on the night of January 3, 2004, and has spent the following six years exploring the region. Since April, though, the spacecraft has been stuck in sandy soil after the rover broke through a crusty surface layer. Efforts to free the rover are ongoing, but have been hampered by problems with two of the rover's six wheels. Project officials said that if they're unable to free the rover, they hope to at least improve its tilt to maximize the amount of sunlight on its solar panels as the next Martian winter approaches. In a worst-case scenario the rover may not be able to generate enough power to remain in operation as early as May.| <<previous article | next article>> |
|
news in brief
|
|
|
|
news links
|
|
Wednesday, January 29
Space Force opens ‘Space Campus’ in Middle East
Washington Examiner — 6:06 am ET (1106 GMT) Blue Origin Delays New Shepard Suborbital Lunar Gravity Sim Launch
Aviation Week — 6:05 am ET (1105 GMT) Trump asks Musk to ‘go get’ NASA astronauts stuck in space
The Hill — 6:03 am ET (1103 GMT) Apple and SpaceX Link Up to Support Starlink Satellite Network on iPhones
Bloomberg News — 6:02 am ET (1102 GMT) Alicia Brown Joins Commercial Space Federation as Executive Director
Commercial Space Federation — 5:59 am ET (1059 GMT) |
