Wheel Trouble, ...down to 5 good wheels? |
Wheel Trouble, ...down to 5 good wheels? |
Mar 14 2006, 12:29 AM
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Junior Member Group: Members Posts: 90 Joined: 13-January 05 Member No.: 143 |
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I just heard that there is a serious problem with Spirit's right front drive actuator after yestersol's drive. (This is the actuator that had high currents in the past and led to the backward-driving strategy.) It will take awhile to evaluate the situation, but early speculation is grim.
In a worst-case scenario, they can still drag the bum wheel along, but don't expect another summit view. Best-case scenario would be a rock or debris jammed in the wheel. This is a heads-up, sorry I can't really give more info at this time. I still thought you all would like to know. |
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Mar 16 2006, 04:10 AM
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2228 Joined: 1-December 04 From: Marble Falls, Texas, USA Member No.: 116 |
Squyres did not mention the wheel trouble in his talk today about Spirit. In fact he said at the end "Spirit has just completed a drive in the direction of Oberth and Korolev, we hope in a week or so to be on one of those nice toasty slopes that will allow us to survive another winter at Mars." Jim Bell concluded his presentation in the morning session by mentioning that most recently they had taken diagnostic images of the wheel, and that Steve Squyres might have more to say when he speaks. After SS didn't mention it, all ll I could think was that they didn't know enough yet to speculate.For what that's worth. --Emily I had a short chat with Matt Golombek after the last presentation. Although I should have known better, I couldn't help but ask him if they had any ideas about the wheel problem. As you might expect, he told me it was too soon to speculate because it was such a recent development. He also said the engineers were investigating (again, something you might suspect). So, I wasn't able to learn anything new, but only confirmed what one would logically suspect. ...for what _that_ is worth. -------------------- ...Tom
I'm not a Space Fan, I'm a Space Exploration Enthusiast. |
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