After getting bogged down in sand, and damaging its two right wheels, all is not looking good for the Mars Spirit Rover. Nasa’s admitted it will be stuck in its rut for all eternity, with little hope of moving it.
NASA’s Spirit Rover just isn’t having much luck, between sand storms and broken wheels, with a second wheel presumed broken and the threat of an icy-cold winter freezing the Spirit “to death” if it doesn’t move on soon.
…And learn to roll again, roll again so free. Sure, Spirit’s been better, but that doesn’t mean he’s down and out. No sir. NASA is ready to make the little guy mobile again and put him back to work.
We hadn’t visited the NASA Mars rovers in a while here at Gizmodo, so I thought I’d take a look today and see what they’re up to. Unfortunately, things could be better.
Nerds cheered and wept with happiness as NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Spirit responded to ground control commands today via the Mars Odyssey orbiter. Earlier this week, NASA feared that the rover would fall victim to the same problem that killed our beloved Phoenix Mars Lander. The dust storm is still a problem, but Spirit has managed to gather enough solar energy to communicate normally. Once again, Spirit has lived up to the name and proven that its a fighter. [Spacefellowship via Slashdot]
More bad, bad news. Just two days ago Phoenix Mars Lander sent his last words, and NASA announced the end of the mission because of a storm that covered its solar panels with Martian dust. Today, we have learnt that the Mars Spirit rover may be dying too because exactly the same problem. In fact, according to Bruce Banerdt–the mission manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and part-time Hulk impersonator–he may be dead already:
