The tilted image below shows the rover’s dire condition. Sloped at a roughly 20¨ angle, Spirit’s wheels are deeply entrenched in the sand. Luckily, Spirit’s chassis appears to be free from major obstructions, giving some hope to crews working out a rescue plan.

Spirit's undercarriage as photographed by the rover's microscopic imaging camera. The blurriness results from the camera's focal length of 6cm. Image: NASA

Engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab are studying the images to develop a plan that will free the ailing rover. This isn’t the first time a mars rover has become stuck. In 2005, Spirit’s twin rover, Opportunity, became disabled by the sand. Opportunity’s foray with powdery martian sand resulted in a month of downtime before slow forward progress inched her into the clear.

Another tactic for removing sand imprisoned mars rovers is to back up the rover out of the martian sand trap on the same path it went in. It is unlikely, however, that engineers will reverse Spirit out of the sand trap. In 2006, Spirit’s front right wheel permanently jammed. Since then, Spirit has operated in reverse, dragging her jammed wheel — making backing up out of her sandy tomb a difficult task.

Opportunity, Spirit's twin mars rover, is shown here making slow progress while stuck in 2005. Image: NASA

This news comes after a rough year for the rover. Last year, budget concerns resulted in an attempt to shut down the rover project as we know it. Recently, Spirit underwent a bout of amnesia, and could not report what it had recently done. Engineers were also worried about a possible lock-up in one of Spirit’s middle wheels, which a reassuring roll test suggested no problem existed. One can only be thankful that the rovers have lasted almost 1900 days past their 90 day planned mission.

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[June 3 Press Release]

Related posts:

1. Spirit Rover Update – Still Stuck, But NASA is Working on it.
2. Mars Rover Stuck in Deep Sand, says NASA
3. Spirit Rover Update – Stuck Mars Rover

Since our previous post on the stuck mars rover, NASA has released an update: The rover is still stuck.

Mars Spirit Rover Image: NASA

Good news comes with the successful completion of 4 and 16 degree roll tests on the once thought malfunctioned middle wheel. Spirit’s solar panels are also performing well with a level of energy production near their maximum after martian dust blew from the panels.

NASA is currently planning to image the underbody of the immobile rover to see just how badly Spirit is trapped in the sand.

Pending the recertification of the robotic arm (the instrument deployment device, or IDD), a microscopic imager (MI) mosaic of Spirit’s underbelly is planned for this coming weekend to assess the rover’s embedded condition.

Some unforecasted complications have delayed the folks at JPL. NASA released the following comments on the delay in testing recovery methods for the rover:

On the ground, testing with the surface system testbed (SSTB) rover at JPL is held up due to a computer server disk crash. That server is being restored from a huge backup tape, which is taking considerable time. In parallel, the SSTB-Lite rover (an alternate, lower-fidelity testbed rover) is being set up to conduct early tests of candidate soil simulants.

In related news, Spirit’s twin, Opportunity, has clocked its tenth mile (10.06 miles, as of Sol 1899 / May 28, 2009). Both rovers have operated over 1800 martian days past their original planned mission!

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[Update]

Related posts:

1. Spirit Rover Update – Still Stuck, But NASA is Working on it.
2. Mars Rover Stuck in Deep Sand, says NASA
3. Spirit Rover Snaps Pictures of Her Undercarriage

Earlier this month, Spirit, one of NASA’s Mars rovers, became lodged in deep sand. Shown in the pictures below is a photo of Spirit’s stuck wheel, and a photo of NASA engineers working to find the best method of freeing the aging rover.

NASA engineers work on methods to free the stuck rover. Image: NASA

NASA's Mars Spirit rover's wheel is shown almost entirely submersed in Martian sand, on sol 1899. Image: NASA

Spirit reported problems on May 1st, 2009, when its onboard cameras detected that the rover had not moved as far as it should have. This anti-slip feature notices when the rover does not go as far forward as it should on the Martian surface when the wheels turn.

Engineers stopped the rover while they work out the best method of freeing the aging rover. This process could take several weeks.

Related posts:

1. Spirit Rover Update – Stuck Mars Rover
2. Spirit Rover Update – Still Stuck, But NASA is Working on it.
3. Spirit Rover Snaps Pictures of Her Undercarriage