'Frustrating' that Mars rover is stuck says ASU researcher
'Frustrating' that Mars rover is stuck says ASU researcher
One of NASA's two Mars rovers, which landed on the Red Planet in Jan. 2004, has almost certainly roved its last. The space agency announced Jan. 26 that the Spirit rover, which has been mired in soft sand in Gusev Crater since May 2009, will stay where it is and become a stationary research platform.
But first, Spirit has to survive the coming Martian winter, which begins in May on Earth's calendar. Mission controllers are planning to use the rover's limited remaining mobility to tilt it a few degrees toward the Sun. This should let its solar panels collect enough energy to keep the rover operating at least to a limited extent during the winter.
Reporting on the NASA announcement, science reporter Anne Ryman of The Arizona Republic spoke with ASU faculty research associate Steven Ruff of ASU's School of Earth and Space Exploration. Ruff is in charge of day-to-day operations of the Miniature Thermal Emission Spectrometer (Mini-TES) instrument on both rovers. Mini-TES, which functions as a mineral scouting instrument, was designed by ASU Regents' professor Philip Christensen of the Mars Space Flight Facility on the Tempe campus.
Says Ruff, "It's very frustrating" for Spirit to become stuck after all these years. While Spirit can continue to examine the soil around it, it will be limited to only what it can see from its current position and what lies within reach of its instrument arm. The soil trapping the rover is highly rich in almost pure silica, and might preserve possible traces of Martian microbial life.
If Spirit survives the winter, scientists plan to use the Spirit's radio signals to track the wobble of the planet's axis, which could shed light on whether Mars has a solid or liquid core.
Ruff says he's glad Spirit can continue to operate, and he holds a slight hope the robot may someday be able to move again.
(Robert Burnham)
