Mars Rover Magazine

SPACE.com - Even though NASA's Mars rover Spirit has been trapped in the sand for months, the robot has still managed to report new facts about the red planet — all by just spinning its wheels.  

It's bit too soon to write an obituary for the Mars rover Spirit, JPL scientists say. It's been a month after the team at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory began sending signals to the stuck rover, but project manager John Callas said he's worried by recent setbacks in the effort to set the free from its sandy rut.  

Interplanetary explorer crawls out of bunkerNASA’s long running Mars rover Spirit is stuck in a sand trap – a situation the space agency would like to fix. Today NASA said it will begin what it called the long process of extricating Spirit by sending commands that could free the rover.  

Physics Today: The NASA Mars rover Spirit which got stuck in April, now has three wheels completely buried in the sand with little chance of being able to free itself. Spirit Mars Rover (Artists impression. Credit: NASA) On the 3...  

Spaceflight NowThere's hope that Lockheed Martin's Mars rover Phoenix might spring back to lifeDenver Business JournalThe NASA probe created at the company's Littleton headquarters has been frozen in wintry Martian conditions that make this week's sub-zero lows around ...NASA Mars probes age; space agency looks to the futureThe Huntsville Times - al.comMars rover faces icy deathRegisterFuture Looks Grim for Stuck Mars RoverDiscover...  

This view from the navigation camera near the top of the mast on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit shows the tracks left by the rover as it drove southward and backward, dragging its inoperable right-front wheel.  

Engineers trying to save one of the world's most beloved robots turn for help to a high-tech version of a kiddie plaything: the sandbox. The famed Mars rover Spirit has been stuck since spring in a patch of slippery Martian soil. To help plot the rover's escape, scientists concoct some faux-Martian sand, and are running tests with a duplicate robot in the sandbox.  

London, December 9 (ANI): Reports indicate that a second wheel may now be broken on NASA’s Spirit rover, dampening hopes for freeing the robot from a sand trap it has been trapped in for seven months on Mars. Spirit has been struggling to escape from a patch of soft, sandy soil since April. Its three [...]  

Every journey must have an end. It is a little sand that Spirits may end here. We must keep in mind that his journey was only supposed to last 60 days. I would like to think in a few decades when we finally do make it to Mars. Some future astronaut will go and pick up Spirit to bring back to Earth. To be put on display at the Smithsonian for future generations to see what we were able to do. To see what Spirit was able to do. tomcat1483  

(By Kenneth Chang, New York Times) The NASA rover Spirit, stuck in sand on Mars, tried to move Tuesday for the first time since May. In less than a second, it stopped.Cautious mission managers had put tight constraints on the Spirit's movement to ensure that it did not drive itself into a deeper predicament. When its sideward tilt changed by more than a degree, the rover called it a day. Spirit awaits new instructions.  

The Mars rovers Opportunity and Spirit have continued with their mission beyond their designers wildest dreams, however, Spirit's journey may have come to an end as the rove is mired in sand on Mars.Contributor: Matthew StokerPublished: Nov 16, 2009  

One of Spirit's wheels stalled again in the most recent attempt to drive the Mars rover out of the rut where it's spent the last seven months, a development that JPL project manager John Callas called "troubling."  

NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit recorded this forward view of its arm and surroundings on the rover's 2,052nd Martian day October 11, 2009 in this photograph recently released by NASA. Spirit bec...  

World NewsSpirit Is Perched on the Rim of a CraterSoftpediaIt is not stranded on an ordinary hill, but straight on the rim of a crater, sitting astride the boundary, Space Fellowship reports. ...Mars Had Liquid Water in Recent Past, Rover FindsNational GeographicRover Spirit gets bogged down but finds steam-formed sulfatesiTWireMars Rover's wheel stalls, againPasadena Star-NewsScienceBlog.com (blog) -AccuWeather.com -Tonicall 23 news articles »  

Spirit rover's right-front wheel, immobile since 2006, surprisingly spins during test.