After months of trying, NASA is calling it quits on freeing the Spirit rover from the Martian sand that it’s been stuck in since May of 2009.  Unfortunately, after six years of tireless service, the end might be very near for the rover, which faces a severe Martian winter in its current position. NASA engineers will spend the next few weeks preparing Spirit to face the winter weather, and hope that it will be able to continue on as a stationary scientific platform.

“Spirit is not dead; it has just entered another phase of its long life,” said Doug McCuistion, director of the Mars Exploration Program at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “We told the world last year that attempts to set the beloved robot free may not be successful. It looks like Spirit’s current location on Mars will be its final resting place.”

The Martian winter will begin in May. Until then, NASA will try and use remaining power to change the inclination of Spirit in order to help it capture more sunlight. NASA says that unless Spirit can be positioned in a better position, it is unlikely that it will survive.

Meanwhile, Opportunity, Spirit’s sister, continues to amble onwards towards a crater called Endeavor. NASA has some good videos summarizing Spirit’s six years.

 

After over five years of tireless service, the Mars rover Spirit is one again in trouble.  Our long-lived martian friend now appears to be stuck in the sand. Spirit, which has been dragging an immobile wheel for nearly three years, has been circling a, “low plateau called ‘Home Plate’ for two months”, where it stumbled into some very soft martian sand. After proceeding about 1 meter, it now appears that the wheels are almost half-way deep into the sand (which you can see in the picture), and NASA engineers have suspended movement until they can further analyze the situation.

“We are proceeding methodically and cautiously. It may be weeks before we try moving Spirit again. Meanwhile, we are using Spirit’s scientific instruments to learn more about the physical properties of the soil that is giving us trouble.”

Even if Spirit never recovers, it will have been operation for more than 5 years past its original mission – a pretty hefty return-on-investment. But, here’s hoping for some more martian exploration time from dear Spirit.

NASA is working on an UAV to fly above the surface of mars and take high resolution video of the landscape below. The ARES mission will involve a 6.5 meter wingspan UAV that will cruise along 1 mile above the martian surface. The cameras on board are very high resolution, such that, “if there was a candy wrapper on the surface, we could read the name and ingrediants off of it.”

Once the plane reaches the surface of Mars, NASA plans on live streaming the video feed from the plane. That will definitely be something to watch for. No word on how long the plane will remain airborne.

The Mars Phoenix Lander is dying dead (see below). Dying a slow death of hypothermia. You see, the fading Martian summer sunlight is causing Phoenix to become starved for photons with which it charges its batteries. Without a fresh battery charge each day, Phoenix is unable to keep its heaters running all night. When the heaters stop running, so does Phoenix.

“This is exactly the scenario we expected for the mission’s final phase, though the dust storm brought it a couple weeks sooner than we had hoped,” said Phoenix Project Manager Barry Goldstein of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. “We will be trying to gain some additional science during however many days we have left. Any day could be our last.”

To commemorate the passing of our Martian robotic pal, Gizmodo is having Phoenix as a “guestblogger” on their site. Phoenix is summing up his thoughts for the world at the end of his life. You can also keep up with Phoenix’s last moments via Twitter.

In the slim chance that Phoenix manages to stay in one piece during the Martian winter, he’s programming to wake up and alert NASA that he’s still alive. In the meantime, Phoenix, we’ll miss you.

Update: NASA has officially ended the Phoenix mission. Phoenix is now officially dead. They haven’t heard from him since Nov. 2nd. [Via Riding with Robots]

Congradulations to the Phoenix Mars Mission team! Phoenix touched down and has sent the first pictures back to Earth. Once again, NASA has accomplished an amazing feat. Now begins Phoenix’s three month mission.



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