Rover rescue rehearsed

andy womack, fraser colorado — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 00:24:12 GMT

Awesome work JPL. Why just two rovers? More science was done in the first 10 minutes of rover arrival on the martian surface as has been gained in all the years of the upper atmospheric stunt vehicle a.k.a. "space" shuttle operation.

Rover rescue rehearsed

Ben Brockert, Mojave — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 01:31:13 GMT

It'd be nice if one of the prediction markets would set one up for the freeing of Spirit.

It'd be great to see it escape, but I'm giving it 20% chance right now.

Rover rescue rehearsed

JQuinlan — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 02:30:45 GMT

I have run all types of heavy equipment for almost 40 years. When working on slippery side hills consisting of loose sand and gravel or mud, a tremendous change in traction can be gained and immediately noticed within the cab, when I would swing the boom of the excavator uphill and extend it out! Like a tight rope walker at the circus with one of those long balance poles. Worked great for me and it made my situation much safer. Plus i could grab the uphill side of the machine with the bucket if I started to slip.

My point is, if the Rover's camera boom can extend and swing to either side, and/or the solar panels weight could be readjusted with the weight of the camera boom, they might be able to get it free! Just a thought!

Rover rescue rehearsed

Joseph Mulherin, Sr — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 11:23:32 GMT

Would it be possible to use the Rover's digging shovel arm to pull the Rover as well as running the wheels at the same time...?

Rover rescue rehearsed

Harry Sudwischer — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 13:03:18 GMT

The incident with the Rover reminds me of the Arthur C. Clark Novel "A Fall of Moondust" Brings back Childhood Memories .Hope the Rover gets out of this scrape.

Rover rescue rehearsed

Eric, Salinas, CA — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 14:20:11 GMT

Informative article Alan. I sure hope that NASA has the right stuff in the lab to figure out how to extricate Spirit from it's sand trap. While they've done a good job of replicating most of the conditions I'm perplexed they haven't done something to replicate the gravity of Mars and Spirit's Mar's weight. They could use some kind of tether to lessen the test vehicle's weight to make sure that the wheels spin the same way on Earth and Mars. I do hope that NASA figures it out soon and gets Spirit out of it's sand trap and back buzzing around Mars showing us new stuff.

Rover rescue rehearsed

Dave - Peotone IL — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 16:24:04 GMT

As always, great stuff Alan! Thanks for the wonderful updates on these amazing rovers.

Rover rescue rehearsed

Frank Glover, Rochester, NY — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 08:08:55 GMT

"Awesome work JPL. Why just two rovers?"

Money? (including for launch capacity...none of this is cheap)

Earth operations limitations? (JPL may have its hands full with just two rovers. More people, equipment, time, more, goes back to money. The Deep Space Network is finite and has other stuff across the solar system to communicate with, too.)

"More science was done in the first 10 minutes of rover arrival on the martian surface as has been gained in all the years of the upper atmospheric stunt vehicle a.k.a. "space" shuttle operation."

Interesting. I'm sure those involved with the Hubble Space Telescope, the Magellan probe to Venus, the Galileo probe to Jupiter, etc. will be most surprised to hear that...

What's that? the Shuttle didn't go to those places itself? Repeat after me: The Shuttle is a Reuseable LAUNCH Vehicle, not a Reuseable INTERPLANETARY Vehicle.

No, it wasn't as good at the former as intended (and would that we could have the latter, anytime soon), but 'shuttling' between Earth surface and Low Earth Orbit with payloads (some of which would then go deeper into space) is what it was meant to do. Period. Nothing more. It's formally known as the 'Space Transportation System' for a reason. The more we want to do in LEO or deep space, the more we'll ultimately need something else to fill that role.

Even Spirit and Opportunity didn't initially get into space by themselves, but *their* (expendable) launcher became, as expected, pieces of metal in the Atlantic, soon after launch...

Rover rescue rehearsed

Gary Hanson, Somerset, Wisconsin — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 00:00:06 GMT

The rock under the rover might actually help to get the rover loose. The rock is likely at a fixed height (unlikely to be pushed down if the rower puts its weight on it), therefore it might be possible to use it as a pivit point. Allowing the wheels to be lifted free of the surface and repositioned (out of the holes) or the wheels could then be used to push material back into the holes and packed down. The wheels could lightly push down on the surface to pack down a roadway for the following wheels. If the wheels can be repositioned to new undisturbed surfaces at a slight angle to the direction the rower came in then crust that has not been broken through might be reached. Then at about sunrise when the surface is coldest the rover could be inched forward at little each night over several nights. Since the rover has extra power over day cycles, this power could be used at a time when the surface is the strongest.

Rover rescue rehearsed

Tom Churchill — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 14:55:50 GMT

Why can't you use the arm to lift the rover over the rock or sand that it is stuck on?