Is It All Over for the Rover?

When the Mars rovers landed -- Spirit arrived on Mars in the first week of January 2004, followed by its twin Opportunity three weeks later -- the images they immediately began transmitting to earth astonished the world, and raised hopes at NASA that they indicated a great start to a 90-day mission.

When, following the successful completion of their planned three-month operational window, the rovers just kept working, project scientists were elated. That they continued to cover territory, scrape, probe, and gather and send pictures as years ticked by exceeded hopes and expectations by orders of magnitude.

Alas, it may be time to hold a vigil, and consider all the great accomplishments achieved by one of the intrepid pair whose service may be at or nearing an end. Space.com reports that the Spirit rover, which in May got stuck in loose soil, may be bogged down for good according to NASA.

Ever the trooper, almost as if it was keenly aware of its own name, Spirit has done its best to stay active even in its immobility. A late June article at Space.com describes the location in which Spirit got stuck as scientifically interesting, and the motionless rover has remained useful in collecting and transmitting a full and rich data set helping project scientists back on Earth develop additional insights into Martian geology.

But the combination of soft, unconsolidated soil material with a large rock that may be wedged into or underneath the works increasingly appear to have cast Spirit's fate. NASA, whose efforts to free Spirit so far have not panned out, are shifting gears to gather more information about the immediate surroundings in an effort to try additional one more round of rover-saving maneuvers early next month.

Image courtesy of NASA, via Wikimedia Commons