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NASA To Try Powering Mars Rover "Spirit" Out of Sand Trap

Posted by Soulskill on from the calls-to-onstar-have-gone-unanswered dept.

coondoggie writes "NASA's long-running Mars rover Spirit is stuck in a sand trap — a situation the space agency would like to fix. Yesterday NASA said it will begin what it called the long process of extricating Spirit by sending commands that could free the rover. Spirit has been stuck in a place NASA calls 'Troy' since April 23, when the rover's wheels broke through a crust on the surface that was covering bright-toned, slippery sand underneath. After a few drive attempts to get Spirit out in the subsequent days, it began sinking deeper in the sand trap. Driving was suspended to allow time for tests and reviews of possible escape strategies, NASA stated."

8 of 118 comments (clear)

  1. Oh no by MichaelSmith · · Score: 5, Funny

    Methinks it is time for somebody to get out and push.

    --
    http://michaelsmith.id.au
    1. Re:Oh no by The_mad_linguist · · Score: 4, Funny

      Maybe they should switch to a ten iron instead. That should work.

    2. Re:Oh no by mrsurb · · Score: 4, Funny

      They should just call for a mulligan... no wait, that's for water traps like on the moon.

    3. Re:Oh no by martin-boundary · · Score: 3, Funny

      Or they could just try plan B: take all the hard drives, erase the surveillance tapes, wipe the fingerprints off everything and run.

  2. It's a conspiracy! by lordmatrix · · Score: 3, Funny

    Since the Mars rover is not really on Mars, but on a secret location on Earth, perhaps they could just use the "hand of god" to give it a little help :)

    1. Re:It's a conspiracy! by hazee · · Score: 5, Funny

      I fail to see why it takes Diego Maradona to free the rover, wherever it is.

  3. AAA's new market by Dayofswords · · Score: 5, Funny
    Mars is the new frontier for the AAA people to explore.

    Up next:OnStar

    --
    Someday we'll hit the human carrying capacity. And the band will just play on.
  4. It's in a sand trap? by maxwell+demon · · Score: 3, Funny

    It's not just trapped in the sand? So we finally have proof there's intelligent life on Mars, which builds traps!

    --
    The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.