Copyright (c) 2009 NASA / JPL All rights reserved. http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.html Science Follow the efforts to free the Spirit rover from a sand trap where its wheels are dug in. en-us Thu, 24 May 2012 09:06:46 GMT 5 http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.html http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/podcast/planets-300.jpg NASA / JPL science

Late-afternoon shadows add punch to a false-color vista of Endeavour Crater on Mars from NASA's Opportunity rover.

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With its daily supply of solar energy increasing, NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has driven off the sunward-tilted outcrop, Greeley Haven.

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A crater NASA's Mars rover Opportunity drove for years to reach is paying off with evidence about wet environments older than any recorded at sites the rover has seen before.

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On the eighth anniversary of starting to explore Mars, NASA's rover Opportunity remains busy with new investigations.

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Researchers plan to keep NASA's Opportunity rover busy through Martian winter at a sun-facing site, "Greeley Haven," where a study of the planet's core has begun.

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A view of a memorial to victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center towers was taken on Mars yesterday, on the 10th anniversary of the attacks.

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Two interplanetary memorials to victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks reside on Mars in tools from New York used by NASA's Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity.

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NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has captured eye-catching images of Martian terrain from its new perch at Endeavour Crater.

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After a journey of almost three years, NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has reached the Red Planet's Endeavour crater to study rocks never seen before.

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NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity may reach the rim of Endeavour crater in coming days.

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NASA's Mars rover Spirit, which overcame many obstacles during a prolonged lifetime to achieve discoveries about water and environments on ancient Mars, has finished its work.

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NASA is ending attempts to regain contact with the long-lived Mars Exploration Rover Spirit, which last communicated on March 22, 2010.

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A dance-step pattern visible in wheel tracks imprinted recently by NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity results from use of an autonomous hazard-checking technique.

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A relatively young crater on Mars informally bears the name of the Freedom 7 spacecraft that astronaut Alan Shepard piloted in America's first human spaceflight 50 years ago.

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Approaching the 50th anniversary of the first human spaceflight, Mars rover team members are remembering a Martian rock informally named for Yuri Gagarin.

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Hopes for reviving NASA's Spirit Mars rover dimmed further with passage last week of the point at which the rover's locale received its maximum sunshine for the Martian year.

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The team operating NASA's Mars rover Opportunity will temporarily suspend commanding for 16 days after the rover's seventh anniversary next week, but the rover will stay busy.

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NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity will spend a few weeks investigating a football-field-size crater informally named 'Santa Maria.'

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A new Mars movie clip gives us a rover's-eye view of a bluish Martian sunset, while another clip shows the silhouette of the moon Phobos passing in front of the sun.

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NASA's Mars Opportunity rover is getting important tips from an orbiting spacecraft as it explores areas that might hold clues about past Martian environments.

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NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has visited and photographed two craters informally named for the spacecraft that carried men to the moon 41 years ago this week.

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The project team that built and operates the Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity has become the first NASA space mission to use cloud computing for daily mission operations.

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The ground where NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit became stuck last year holds evidence that water, perhaps as snow melt, trickled into the subsurface fairly recently.

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A dark rock about the size of a toaster oven is visible in images NASA's Mars rover Opportunity took on Sept. 16. It may be a meteorite. The rover is going for a closer look.

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During a long drive on Labor Day, NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity reached the estimated halfway point of its journey from Victoria Crater to Endeavour Crater.

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NASA mission controllers have not heard from the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit since March 22, and the rover is facing its toughest challenge yet - trying to survive the harsh Martian winter.

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NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has photographed its first dust devil, a challenging feat in the area where Opportunity is working.

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Rocks examined by NASA's Spirit Mars Rover hold evidence of a wet, non-acidic ancient environment that may have been favorable for life.

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NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Project will pass a historic Martian longevity record on Thursday, May 20.

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NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has captured a new view of the rim of Endeavour crater, the rover's destination in a multi-year traverse along the sandy Martian landscape.

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NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit skipped a planned communication session on March 30 and, as anticipated from recent power-supply projections, has probably entered a low-power hibernation mode.

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The team that operates NASA's Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity will receive the 2010 International Space Ops Award for Outstanding Achievement.

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NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity today surpassed 20 kilometers (12.43 miles) of total driving since it landed on Mars 74 months ago.

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Weird coatings on rocks beside a young Martian crater remain puzzling after a preliminary look at data from examination of the site by NASA's Opportunity rover.

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NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity, now in its seventh year on Mars, has a new capability to make its own choices about whether to make additional observations of rocks that it spots on arrival at a new location.

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NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit is now parked for the winter.

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After six years of unprecedented exploration of the Red Planet, NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit no longer will be a fully mobile robot.

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NASA's Mars exploration rover Opportunity is allowing scientists to get a glimpse deep inside Mars.

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The rover team has begun driving Spirit backward as next technique for attempting to extricate the rover from the sand trap where it is embedded.

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The list of remaining maneuvers being considered for extricating Spirit is becoming shorter.

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NASA's Mars rover Spirit will mark six years of unprecedented science exploration and inspiration for the American public on Sunday.

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Spirit's drive on Sol 2120 (Dec. 19, 2009) included commands for using all six wheels.

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Spirit's right-front wheel, which had stopped operating in March 2006, revolved with apparently normal motion during the first three of four driving segments on Sol 2117 (Wednesday, Dec. 16) but stopped early in the fourth segment of the drive.

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Diagnostic tests were run on Spirit's right-rear wheel and right-front wheel on Sol 2113 (Dec. 12, 2009).

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Results of diagnostic tests on Spirit's right-rear wheel on Sol 2109 (Dec. 8, 2009) continue to indicate a troubled wheel, which may leave the rover with only four operable wheels.

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A series of diagnostic tests on Spirit's right-rear wheel on sols 2104 and 2105 (Dec. 3 and 4) investigated stalls that occurred on Sol 2099 (Nov. 28) and earlier.

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Spirit's right-rear wheel stalled again on Sol 2099 (Nov. 28, 2009) during the first step of a two-step extrication maneuver.

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On Sol 2095 (Tuesday, Nov. 24), Spirit performed a set of diagnostic actions related to a stall of the right-rear wheel on the previous drive, three days earlier.

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Spirit experienced a wheel stall with the right-rear wheel during the second step of a two-step drive on Sol 2092 (Saturday, Nov. 21).

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Because the first extrication drive for Spirit, on Sol 2088 (Nov. 17), stopped as soon as it began due to an exceeded tilt limit, the plan for an extrication drive on Sol 2090 (Nov. 19) will essentially be a repeat of the first drive plan, but with improved rover attitude knowledge.

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The preliminary results from the first extrication drive for Spirit on Sol 2088 (Nov. 17, 2009) indicate the rover stopped less than 1 second after it began, sensing more vehicle lateral tilt than permitted.

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NASA will begin transmitting commands to its Mars exploration rover Spirit on Monday as part of an escape plan to free the venerable robot from its Martian sand trap.

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Until Oct. 24, NASA's Mars Exploration Rover had gone more than six months without an episode of amnesia-like symptoms like those that appeared on four occasions earlier this year.

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Engineers using test rovers on Earth to prepare for extracting the sand-trapped Spirit rover on Mars have added a new challenge to their preparations.

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Tests on Earth simulating Spirit's predicament on Mars have reinforced understanding that getting Spirit to rove again will be very difficult.

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The amount of electricity generated by the solar panels on Spirit has been declining for the past several Martian days, or sols, as a regional dust storm moved southward and blocked some of the sunshine at Spirit's location.

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A second, lighter-weight test rover has entered the testing setup at JPL where rover team members are assessing strategy for getting Spirit out of soft soil where it is embedded on Mars.

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Today marks the 2,000th Martian day, or sol, of what was initially planned as a 90-sol mission on Mars for NASA's Spirit rover.

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Mars rover team members are planning a long-duration experiment with the test rover at JPL beginning next week.

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A review on Aug. 6 of test results to date yielded a decision to conduct further checkouts in an augmented testing set-up on Earth before beginning to send driving commands to Spirit for attempting to get out of the loose soil where the rover has partially embedded itself.

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Composition measurements by NASA's Opportunity rover confirm that this rock on the Martian surface is an iron-nickel meteorite.

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Mars rover engineers at JPL are winding down testing of different escape maneuvers using a test rover in a sand box filled with soil to mimic the Martian surface.

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Mars rover team members have begun a new phase of testing at JPL -- using longer-duration experiments -- in their preparations for driving Spirit again on Mars.

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As the Mars rover team uses testing at JPL to evaluate possible ways to drive Spirit out of loose soil on Mars, the team is finishing tests of individual "building block" maneuvers and is about to begin stringing some of those together.

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A live videocast and chat from JPL will give viewers a chance to ask questions of rover team members working to get Spirit rolling again.

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The Mars rover team is using a test rover at JPL to assess various extraction techniques that might get Spirit out of the loose soil of "Troy" on Mars.

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Scientists have combined a trio of shots taken seconds apart through different colored filters to create a special-effects portrait of a moving dust devil on Mars.

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Engineers checking possible rover movements to get Spirit out of the "Troy" sand trap on Mars are evaluating how a comparable rover at JPL fares in a crablike backward drive.

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On firm ground, NASA's Mars Exploration Rovers can make crablike moves by turning all four steerable wheels to the same side angle, then rotating the wheels either forward or backward.

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Engineers used straight-backward driving of a test rover on Earth on Wednesday, July 8, as they evaluate maneuvers that might be useful for getting Spirit out of a sandtrap on Mars.

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Using a test rover in a sandbox at JPL with special soil simulating Spirit's predicament on Mars, engineers are assessing possible maneuvers for getting Spirit out and onto firmer ground.

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Engineers placed a rock underneath the test rover at JPL on July 1, 2009, to more closely simulate Spirit's predicament on Mars.

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After several days of preparing a sloped area of soft, fine soil to simulate Spirit's current sandtrap on Mars, the rover team drove a test rover into the material.

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NASA's Mars rover Spirit, lodged in Martian soil that is causing traction trouble, is taking advantage of the situation by learning more about the Red Planet's environmental history.

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One of NASA's two Mars rovers has recorded a compelling saga of environmental changes that occurred over billions of years at a Martian crater.

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NASA's rover project team is using Spirit and other spacecraft at Mars to find a way for the rover to get dislodged from soft Martian ground.

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The five wheels that still rotate on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit have been slipping severely in soft soil during recent attempts to drive, sinking the wheels about halfway into the ground.

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NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit drove on Thursday for the first time since April 8, acting on commands from engineers who are still investigating bouts of amnesia and other unusual behavior exhibited by Spirit in the past two weeks.

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After three days of completing Earth-commanded activities without incident last week, NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit had a bout of temporary amnesia Friday, April 17, and rebooted its computer Saturday, April 18, behavior similar to events about a week earlier.

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Heading into a period of the Martian year prone to major dust storms, the team operating NASA's twin Mars rovers is taking advantage of eye-in-the-sky weather reports.

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The team operating NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit is examining data received from Spirit in recent days to diagnose why the rover apparently rebooted its computer at least twice over the April 11-12 weekend.

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On a plain that stretches for miles in every direction, the panoramic camera on NASA's Mars rover Opportunity has caught a first glimpse on the horizon of the uplifted rim of the big crater that has been Opportunity's long-term destination for six months.

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Loose soil piled against the northern edge of a low plateau has blocked Spirit from taking the shortest route toward its southward destinations for the upcoming Martian summer and following winter.

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A small but important uptick in electrical output from the solar panels on Spirit this month indicates a beneficial Martian wind has blown away some of the dust that has accumulated on the panels.

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NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit resumed driving Saturday after engineers gained confidence from diagnostic activities earlier in the week evaluating how well the rover senses its orientation.

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Public events during the next two weeks will share the adventures of the still-active NASA Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity.

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NASA rovers Spirit and Opportunity may still have big achievements ahead as they approach the fifth anniversaries of their memorable landings on Mars.

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After assessing data received from NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit on Thursday, mission controllers laid out plans for the rover to conserve its modest energy during the next few weeks.

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NASA's Mars Rover Opportunity is setting its sights on a crater more than 20 times larger than its home for the past two years.

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NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has climbed out of the large crater that it had been examining from the inside since last September.

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A small motor in the robotic arm of NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity that began stalling occasionally more than two years ago has become more troublesome recently.

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NASA is extending, for a fifth time, the activities of the Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity.

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Less than a year since beginning the prime science phase of its mission, NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has passed a mission-success milestone for the amount of data returned.

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NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has reached its science team's first destination for the rover inside Victoria Crater, information received from Mars late Tuesday confirms.

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Today, NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity entered Victoria Crater for the first time.

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Slight clearing of still-dusty Martian skies has improved the energy situation for both Spirit and Opportunity, allowing controllers to increase the rovers' science observations.

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