After almost six years exploring the surface of Mars, NASA's intrepid rover Spirit may have settled in its final resting place.
NASA is not overly optimistic attempts to free the rover from a sand pit, where its been stuck for six months, will work, though engineers are going to send commands to try to get Spirit moving on Monday. Efforts to extricate the rover are expected to take months.
"This could end up being where Spirit remains," Doug McCuistion, director of NASA’s Mars exploration program, told reporters during a conference call on Thursday.
In April, Spirit's wheels broke through a hard crust on the Martian surface and encountered loosely packed fine sand beneath. Initial attempts to drive the rover out ended up with it instead sinking deeper into the trap.
Engineers set up a sand box at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., and positioned a sister rover inside to try to figure out a way for Spirit to free itself.
"We've pretty much exhausted all the possibilities, all the things that we can do on the ground," rover project manager John Callas told Discovery News.
The plan is to inch Spirit forward, through the soft sand, over a period of weeks or months if necessary.
"We haven't found a clear solution of how to get the rover out of its predicament," Callas said. "The clock is ticking here. We are concerned about the next winter."
NASA would like to position the rover so that its solar panels can pick up as much energy as possible from the sun as it dips low in the sky during the Martian winter.
"A mobile rover has a better chance of surviving the winter," he said.
Originally designed to last 90 days on the surface of Mars, Spirit and an identical rover Opportunity have been scoring the planet for signs of past water.
(Rover spinning its wheels on the surface of Mars. Credit: NASA)
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