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Spirit Rover Disabled on Mars
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."
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!
and still no post in her LiveJournal.i ritrover/
http://www.livejournal.com/users/sp
here.
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.)
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)
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.
YHBT. YHL. HAND.
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?
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.
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
...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?