Martian sand pile almost overtakes NASA Spirit rover

William Atkins
Thursday, 06 December 2007 05:39

Science - Space

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The treacherous sand pile was called “Tartarus,” named after the gloomy, dark place in Greek mythology that is used as a dungeon of torment in the underworld Hades.

During numerous tries, NASA engineers uploaded commands to help Spirit remove itself from its entrapment. They tried, for instance, to turn the rover in place and then attempt to drive a small distance. Then, they turned the rover in the other direction and tried driving forward just a bit. While performing these maneuvers, Spirit is also trying to navigate up a eleven degree slope that is covered with loose soil, while dragging the defective right-front wheel.

However, on November 28, the little rover used a series of small maneuvers (like the forward-and-backward motions used by snowbound drivers) to drive out of its predicament.

Spirit is now moving toward the northern edge of Home Plate (a 295-foot (90-meter) diameter raised and layered outcrop), a distance of about 80 feet (25 meters), to a point called Winter Haven 3. This area in the southern hemisphere of Mars is conducive to Spirit because it will be able to receive the most sunlight due to the region’s steep north-facing slope.

Once at the site, Spirit will tilt its solar panels toward the Sun in order to receive as much sunlight as possible during the long Martian winter. (If you remember, the rovers had a difficult time last year, when large dust storms blocked much of the sunlight during the winter.) It will need as much sunlight as possible over the next few months in order to keep its solar-powered systems working. Spirit is aiming to be at Winter Haven 3 by January 1, 2008.

For up-to-date information on the Spirit and Opportunity rovers still exploring on the surface of Mars, please go to the NASA website: http://marsrovers.nasa.gov/home/index.html.