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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."

6 of 29 comments (clear)

  1. 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/

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

    here.

  3. 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.)

  4. 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)

  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. 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.