Freeing Spirit

As the Hubble repair mission successfully winds down, NASA is still studying ways to get its Mars rover, Spirit, moving again. As recently reported in this blog, Spirit is currently stuck in a patch of soft ground.

Engineers are using the other rover on Mars, Opportunity, to test the possibility of using Spirit's robotic arm to look beneath the rover, to see if its belly is resting on the ground. Since Martian winds have blown dust off Spirit's solar panels, thus increasing the rover's power supply, NASA is also using the Mars Odyssey orbiter to get in extra communication sessions with Spirit.

The next few weeks will be spent analyzing the situation and deciding what to do. No further attempt to move Spirit will be made until that process is complete.