Disabled Spirit Faces Martian Winter
Mars Exploration Rover Spirit recently experienced trouble with one of its six wheels, and as recovery efforts failed, the rover is now operating with only five wheels. Because winter is approaching in Spirit's area of the planet, the rover is moving toward "McCool Hill" (sadly not in Google Mars' database), whose north-facing slopes will allow for maximum daily ouput from the solar panels. Spirit has spent the last few weeks exploring "Home Plate," where it discovered the complex layered rocks pictured above.
posted by Zosia A. C. Krusberg at
10:48 PM
1 Comments:
It's kind of sad though, little Spirit has to climb a steep hill with only 5 wheels when it only has enough power to run for an hour a day on flat surfaces. Will it be able to make it to McCool Hill so it can stay charged or will it end up spending the winter in a shadow slowly wearing down its battery.
It really tugs at my heartstrings to think about the challenge facing that little robot guy.
Um, then again, it is only a robot. And it's been running around for over 700 days when it was only supposed to survive 90. It's had a good life.
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