Spirit Rover Reaches Safety

dylanduck writes "Good news for rover fans - Spirit is safe for the winter. It had been heading for a north-tilting spot to make sure its solar panels got enough sunlight during the imminent winter to survive, when a sand trap appeared. But, despite its busted wheel, it scooted round and is now sitting pretty. From the article: 'We've got a safe rover,' says principal investigator Steve Squyres. 'That's huge news for us.'"

Comments

Re:Tough decisions

[arivanov]

dragging a broken wheel around

I know that I will get modded down by some "dixie gung-ho we are the best of the world" fanboy, but the only reason for it to drag the wheel instead of freerolling it is that it is an American design.

If you compare the Spirit design with the Russian Moon rover series (aka Lunokhod) you will immediately notice one striking difference. The american design has something missing. It is called a CLUTCH. Yeah, I know, an extremely foreign concept for 95%+ of the American population.

If the wheels were individually clutched the way they were on the old Russian moon exploration vehicles it would have been happily cruising at slightly reduced power instead of dragging its wheel.