[Tyler]

NASA Mars Rovers 6th Anniversary
     


This month marks the sixth anniversary of NASA's Spririt and
Opportunity Mars robots. They were originally designed to explore Mars
for about three months. But the two little robots have proven themselves
to be survivors, lasting 6 Earth years (3.2 Martian years) in the severe
Martian environment. Opportunity is still going strong but Spirit faces
an uncertain future, trapped in "Troy", a sandy area on the sloping
edge of Gusev Crater. NASA has been trying to get Spirit unstuck for
some time without success. Spirit's right front wheel stopped working
back in 2006 and now the right rear wheel has stopped working too. Dust
is building up on Spirit's solar panels, reducing the exposure to
declining sun light of Martian winter. According to rover power engineer
Jennifer Herman,
At the current rate of dust accumulation, solar arrays at
zero tilt would provide barely enough energy to run the survival heaters
through the Mars winter solstice.

The best Spirit
can hope for at this point is to survive winter but remain stuck, which
will limit the science it can do. On the upside, Opportunity
is going strong, taking photos such
as the one above (shot on Sol 1798), and doing a lot of
useful science too. Earlier in 2009, the US
Congress passed a resolution recognizing the contributions to
science that have been made by these two little robots.
   

http://robots.net/article/2967.html