Mars Rover Likely Stuck For Good NASA Concedes

"[Spirit's] driving days are likely over," according to Doug McCuistion, NASA's director of the Mars exploration program, but "science will continue." Spirit has been stuck in loose sand since April of '09 and despite all attempts the space agency has been unable to free it. Efforts will now focus on trying "to jostle the rover in place and angle its solar panels to increase its chance of surviving the Martian winter." according to this CBC News story. 

Spirit and it's sister rover Opportunity landed 21 days apart in January of 2004 on missions with expected lives of 90 days. Spirit, the first to land on January 4, 2004, has encountered some mechanical difficulties limiting it's movement but Opportunity soldiers on continuing to explore the surface of the planet with over 19 total kilometers on the odometer.

"Spirit is not dead," said McCuistion "It has just entered another phase of its long life."

Long live Spirit!

Mars Spirit Rover Showing It's Age?

Even though it acknowledged receipt of it's commands for the day on Sunday, Mars rover Spirit failed to carry out the commands sent from the command centre at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif. The rover also failed to record the days activities to it's memory. "We don't have a good explanation yet for the way Spirit has been acting for the past few days," said JPL's Sharon Laubach, in a statement. "Our next steps will be diagnostic activities."

I think we can forgive the little guy! Sunday marked Spirit's 1,800th Sol (Martian day) on the planet, not bad for a mission that was supposed to last 90 days...

Source: CBC

Mars Landers Celebrate 4 Years On Surface

The Mars Lander "Spirit" celebrated it's 4th anniversary on the surface of the Red Planet yesterday and it's twin "Opportunity" will do the same on January 24th, not bad for missions that were expected to last in the neighborhood of 3 months each! "These rovers are incredibly resilient considering the extreme environment the hardware experiences every day," said John Callas, project manager for Spirit and Opportunity at Nasa's Jet Propulsion laboratory in Pasadena, California.

"We realise that a major rover component on either vehicle could fail at any time and end a mission with no advance notice, but on the other hand, we could accomplish the equivalent duration of four more prime missions on each rover in the year ahead."

The 4 years of service have not been easy on the rovers though, Spirit must drive backwards everywhere it goes because of a jammed wheel; while Opportunity's robotic arm suffers from a glitch in a shoulder joint because of a broken electrical wire.

Source: BBC News

Mars Had Water, But Could It Sustain Life?

No longer are we debating the fact that there was at one time water on Mars, but could it have sustained life? "If Martian life had to contend with the conditions we found, it certainly would have had a tough time," said Nicholas Tosca, a Harvard University geochemist who used data collected by the Mars rover Opportunity and other probes. "If there is a window of life to survive on Mars, it's probably pushed back to when the planet was very young," Tosca told Discovery News. "From what we know about the origins of life on Earth, an acid pH and high salinity might not have worked so well for the evolution of life on Mars,". It will be interesting to see if the arctic adventures of the recently landed Phoenix mission change these finding in any way... more data please.

Opportunity to descend into Mars crator

Yesterday morning, NASA engineers sent commands to the Mars rover Opportunity to begin its trek into Victoria Crater, and the robot signaled a confirmation. The first step is for the rover to gingerly maneuver below the rim of the crater and then quickly roll back out. The hope is that Opportunity will be able to travel 40 feet down the crater toward a bright band of rocks that scientists believe represent the ancient surface of the planet. CNN has more here.