Spirit: Six Years of Roving Mars

Date- 26th Jan 10 Source- http://www-a.jpl.nasa.gov/index.cfm

'After six years on the move, NASAs Mars Exploration Rover Spirit prepares for a new phase of science.'

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• mars
• rover
• spirit
• jet
• propulsion
• laboratory

[codylclements]

Thanks for posting this, couldn't get it to play on NASA's site

[MattOGormanSmith]

A more thoughtful and relevant answer now :)

Spirit is stuck in loose sand near the equator. Like at Earth's equator, seasons don't affect it so much. The soil will not freeze hard enough. There is no real moisture in the air so overnight freezing will not do the job either. The only way I can think of to free Spirit now would be to use the science arm to drag stones under the wheels, but they've obviously decided it's better not to risk the instruments on the arm.

[MattOGormanSmith]

simple answer -power

The USS Enterprise could do it with phasers, but we don't have anything that powerful (yet).

The complicated answer is cost. We are in fact planning to build solar power stations - with either laser or microwave beams to deliver the power to the ground - in Earth orbit, but that isn't economically feasible yet. Getting all that to Mars would be even more expensive, and it's further from the Sun, so you'd need 4x as many solar cells.

[Qulopuaa]

Why cant nasa launch a satelite with a laserpointer and try to make it free at winter while there is a crust of ice and snow?

[bobster451]

Science in action!

Thanks for making these videos available.

[Mickch200]

nice clip, thanks