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Spirit Rover Disabled on Mars

Posted by michael on from the tow-truck-rates-astronomical dept.

Nick Driver writes " Space.com is reporting that the Spirit Rover hasn't moved since October 1st and is suffering from two wheels that can no longer steer and thus are being held in a fixed direction by their locked steering motors. Hopefully one of the workarounds being considered will allow the rover to be moved again and still retain sufficient steering control over the remaining wheels to continue the mission."

29 comments

  1. Send me; I'll give it a push by justanyone · · Score: 1, Funny

    Hey:

    Send me. I'll give it a push and get it going again. Or, I can fix it. Of course, I'm not a Mr. Goodwrench-certified ASME mechanic. But I do have a Bachelor's Degree!

    --
    Unitarian Church: Freethinkers Congregate!
  2. Mission over? by Deanasc · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Wasn't this robots life span only supposed to be 90 days? Hasn't it been way more than 90 days since the mission started? I say 'good work!' Let the little machine retire with some dignity. It's earned it.

    --
    I've hit Karma 50 and gotten a Score:5, Troll... I win!
    1. Re:Mission over? by uncoveror · · Score: 1

      Here's the real story. The Zhti Ti Kofft (martians) were about to be found, and photographed. To avoid this, they disabled the rover.
      Read more about them.

      --
      The Uncoveror: It's the real news.
  3. I'm Surprised by XsynackX · · Score: 1, Insightful
    I'm surprised the rover even lasted this long at all as its life span was only planned to be 90 days.

    On another note, I read that another issue that would be happening with the rovers would be dust building up on the solar panels, blocking sunlight (maybe dust jammed the wheels as well?). Anyway, I always wondered why NASA didn't foresee these types of issues and BUILD IN workarounds, like little wipers for the solar panels!?

    --
    -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
    I'm not a vegan because I love animals, I'm a vegan because I hate plants!
    1. Re:I'm Surprised by tzanger · · Score: 2, Informative

      Anyway, I always wondered why NASA didn't foresee these types of issues and BUILD IN workarounds, like little wipers for the solar panels!?

      This has been discussed again and again and again - it was considered, and discounted. These units are already well over their designed lifetime. Armchair quarterbacks such as yourself could only hope to have such a successful mission.

    2. Re:I'm Surprised by Gogo+Dodo · · Score: 1
      I always wondered why NASA didn't foresee these types of issues and BUILD IN workarounds, like little wipers for the solar panels!?

      Argh! Please don't bring this up again. It's been hashed over every time there's a Mars Rover article. I suggest you look up some of the older articles.

    3. Re:I'm Surprised by shpoffo · · Score: 1

      I always wondered why NASA didn't foresee these types of issues and BUILD IN workarounds, like little wipers for the solar panels

      Check it out, here's me talking out of my butt:

      'wipers' for the panels would have been made out of rubber, or some other semi-organic compound that could have carried microbes to Mars.

      .... of course, if you tell me the wheels are made of rubber then I don't have anything... Moreover, I'm sure you, I and the dozens of others that have thought of the 'wipers' scenario are not out-thinking NASA, and there's probably a FAQ somewhere.

      .
      -shpoffo

    4. Re:I'm Surprised by pediddle · · Score: 2, Insightful

      YHBT. YHL. HAND.

    5. Re:I'm Surprised by amorsen · · Score: 4, Funny
      Ok, find a car with dirty windows. Take a brush. Clean windows. Observe that the cleaning is pretty ineffective. Another suggestion seen on Slashdot was to blow the dust away with air. For that, take the dirty car from before and drive it for a while. Notice that the wind seems unable to blow the dirt away.

      No, if NASA had been properly optimistic, they would have included a pump/sprinkler system that could use the discovered water. As well as a way to lubricate the stuck wheels with oil made from discovered plants.

      --
      Finally! A year of moderation! Ready for 2019?
    6. Re:I'm Surprised by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The problem is that the dust is statically charged and the dust sticks to the rover. The planned way around this is creating a fairly strong magnetic field around the rover. Another post has already outlined the problems with more conventional approaches. Wipers would suffer the same problem as the wheels. They'd clod up.

  4. It's been a whole week... by Hell+O'World · · Score: 4, Funny

    and still no post in her LiveJournal.
    http://www.livejournal.com/users/spi ritrover/

  5. NASA statement by blamanj · · Score: 4, Informative

    here.

  6. I stayed at a Holiday Inn last night! by Picass0 · · Score: 1, Funny

    I have machine empathy and a big hammer. Send me.

  7. I know what's going on here! by vslashg · · Score: 4, Funny

    There's some danger ahead, so the rover shut its wheels off. It's becoming sentient, you see.

    (I learned this kind of science from Star Trek: TNG.)

  8. Re:Steering motors locked up? by noselasd · · Score: 1

    Actually they're running vxworks.

  9. Calm down - Spirit driving again by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    The anomoly seen on Sol 265 was not seen in diagnostics run on Sol 270. Spirit will drive again during activities on Sol 271 (todayish)

  10. Oh well by iamlucky13 · · Score: 1

    It was bound to happen before too much longer. Does this make Spirit the typical lazy, fat American or has it simply decided it's time to retire?

    I suppose since everything else is still working on Spirit, if they don't figure out how to work around this then we'll being seeing lots and lots of postcards from the top of that same hill.

    1. Re:Oh well by R2.0 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I think a more proper analogy would be an American that had traumatic brain surgery as a child, made a full recovery, and has been working its ass off for 120 years and finally twisted a knee so bad it has to take a day off work.

      --
      "As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly." A. Carlson
  11. Re:Not worth it by Bastian · · Score: 1

    There are so many things that are likely to go wrong long before dust on the solar panels disables the rover that the mission planners probably decided it wasn't worth the added cost, weight, or complexity.

    After all, it's a space mission, Katamari Damacy.

  12. Spirit is moving - Look at the images! by BogoMips · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Just by looking at the pictures taken by Spirit's Front Hazard Camera at 14:23:00 UTC and 14:32:06 UTC today (look here to decode the image time from its name) you can see the rover has moved!!

    As of this writing I could'nt find any statement from NASA or from the Rovers' official site indicating whether or not this particular problem is resolved. Nevertheless I hope all is well with Spirit and this was nothing but a simple glitch.

  13. Redundancy by bar-agent · · Score: 1

    Good thing we've got two of them.

    --
    i'd hit it so hard, if you pulled me out you'd be the king of britain [bash.org]
  14. PARENT IS NOT A TROLL!!! MOD ABUSE! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    He may not be the funniest guy I've read today, but he doesn't deserve to be modded down as a troll.

  15. Usually a simple fix by JavaRob · · Score: 2, Funny

    ...suffering from two wheels that can no longer steer and thus are being held in a fixed direction...

    I find that simply rolling back a bit will often dislodge what may be a bottle cap that's causing the wheel to malfunction. If there's string that has become wrapped around the wheel, however, you're done for, and should probably just take another shopping cart.

    Sorry, what are we talking about?

  16. Spin the front wheels Hal! by GrassyKnowl · · Score: 1

    I'm sorry I can't do that, Dave. It would jeopardize the mission.

  17. They can lift the wheels by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If the steering wheels won't turn, they can always lift them up and drive on the other 4 wheels. They were talking about doing this when the bearings in a couple of the wheels were feared to be seizing up.

  18. That's usually because of water. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The water is what really makes dirt stick to a car. It turns it into mud and it adheres very nicely to the surface. It's just like in school when you wanted stuff written on the chalkboard to stick, you wet the chalk and it was a bitch to get off the board.

    On mars we don't have to worry about water making the dirt stick.