NASA is giving up trying to get its stuck Mars rover moving again, though it hopes Spirit will have a new life as a stationary science probe -- if it survives winter.
The rover, which landed on Mars six years ago, has been mired in a sand pit since May. It, along with an identical rover named Opportunity, have been exploring the equatorial regions of Mars for signs of past water.
“We don’t believe it’s extractable,” was the assessment of rover project manager John Callas.
NASA had hoped to free Spirit from the sands of Mars, but was hampered by two dead wheels and a patch of what it calls “bizarre” soil. Plan B calls for engineers to attempt to tilt the rover’s solar panels more toward the sun, in hopes of keeping the rover warm enough to survive the upcoming Martian winter.
If the rover can emerge from hibernation in the spring, NASA wants to use it to monitor changes in Mars’ atmosphere and for soil analysis. It also would be used for a study to determine if the planet’s core is solid iron or partly liquid -- a question that has puzzled scientists for some time.
If Spirit survives, NASA would use it as a tracking beacon to measure minute changes in the planet’s wobble over time, information that can be used to determine the density of the planet’s core, and thus its composition.
“We think we can actually determine whether the core of Mars is liquid or molten,” said Cornell University’s Steve Squyres, the lead scientist of the Mars rover program. “There’s compelling evidence that Mars once had a pretty powerful internally generated magnetic field and that probably required a core of iron that was liquid."
That internal magnetic field is gone today, and scientists don’t know why. The measurements using Spirit should help determine whether the planet’s core has frozen solid or remains partly liquid.
NASA has spent more than $900 million on the Mars rover mission, which has turned up evidence of past shallow salty oceans and minerals formed in the presence of water. The agency is preparing to fly a more sophisticated roving science station to Mars next year.
(Spirit's self-portrait -- during better days. Credit: NASA)
Tags: Mars
comments ( )