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Wednesday July 1, 2009
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NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory has launched Free Spirit, a Web site dedicated to keeping track of the agency's efforts to free the stuck rover on the surface of Mars, Space.com reports. NASA currently has an entire team of engineers working to simulate the rover's predicament using a test rover and several tons of simulated Mars dirt.
"People really like the whole 'free Spirit,' idea and we thought we should make it really easy for people to find updates," said Veronica McGregor, a NASA spokesperson at JPL, in the article. "In a way, we're trying to make it a campaign that everyone can get involved in."
The team is still working on the problem of a big rock situated beneath the rover's stomach, though it appears that it isn't touching quite enough to become a huge problem. Still, the situation remains precarious. "This is a
very tough situation and we're not sure we can get Spirit out," McGregor said in the report. There's lots more, including a video showing the spinning wheel in the dirt, so head on over to the Free Spirit Web site at http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/freespirit/. (Image credit: NASA/JPL)
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July 1, 2009 6:30 PM
This is awesome! I really dig how they're simulating conditions on Mars to try and figure out the best way to free poor Spirit! :D
And they're sharing their tests and experiments as they go along! Double win!
July 2, 2009 12:59 AM
Aren't there two rovers? Guide the other one to the one that's stuck and "bump" it. Come on guys, do I have to think of everything?
July 2, 2009 12:13 PM
@M D LEE Sr: hah! Sorry, but it's just not so simple. ;)
Why would you risk one completely functional rover to free another one when they're both still doing perfectly good science? It's not stuck in the mud and they're not cars- ramming one of them into another one runs the risk of disabling BOTH of them. And it's not like you can just hop out, wipe off the scuff marks, and keep going when you have a multi-million dollar piece of scientific equipment on a planet millions of miles away. ;)
Then add to the fact that Spirit and Oppy are on completely opposite sides of the planet from one another and have really harsh terrain between them, and you see why it doesn't make sense. Wanna see where they are?
http://www.google.com/mars/
Click "spacecraft" at the top, and then click Spirit and Opportunity in the sidebar - you'll see exactly how far apart they are!