William Atkins
Friday, 13 November 2009 19:39
Science -
Space
Page 1 of 3
Trapped in sand for about seven months, the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit is trying to free itself of its predicament with the help of NASA ground support on Earth. This man & machine-versus-nature scenario is being played out on Mars at a site called “Troy,” named after the Greek city at the center of the mythological Trojan War.
Since April 23, 2009, the Spirit rover has been vulnerably stuck in soft sandy material at a dangerous Martian location called “Troy.” On that date, Spirit was wheeling through a crusted layer at a location called Troy, on the edge of a 7.8-meter (26-foot) wide crater.
The mostly filled crater contains sulfate sands that had been produced millions of years earlier when the Mars environment was hot and steamy. On top of many layers of sand is a crust, which looked safe to move on.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t.
As Spirit moved across the crust its wheels broke through and landed in the treacherously bright, sandy soil underneath. It sank deeper into the sand after several valiant, but futile attempts to extricate it.
NASA, then, stopped these attempts to re-group and to further analyze the difficult situation.
Part of the analysis involved using identical rovers at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (Pasadena, California) on a simulated Martian surface to see how they fared under similar circumstances.
After completing their research, NASA will begin, on Monday, November 16, 2009, a series of commands that may extract the little robot (also called MER-A) from its menacing position, a sand trap on the planet Mars.
Page two continues the saga that plagues NASA over the next few days, weeks, or even maybe months.
