Extricating Spirit, Digging out from Troy Options

[briv1016]

The latest update has Spirit's power at 260 watt-hours as of sol 2130.

P.S. The clock on the MER website seems to be off due to the New Year.

[fredk]

Errr.... Emily Lakdawalla is reporting that extrication attempts have ended for the winter:

I'm very sad to report that the Mars Exploration Rover mission has formally given up on getting Spirit out of the sand trap at Troy before the Martian winter arrives; she's now likely embedded forever.

She gives no reference for this and I can't find any mention of this at any of the usual jpl sites.

Edit: for example, the latest press release said:

"The highest priority for this mission right now is to stay mobile, if that's possible," said Steve Squyres

[fredk]

Continued counterclockwise motion.

The latest update says this about the recent drive attempts:

On Sol 2130 (Dec. 30, 2009), a different drive strategy was commanded where the wheels were steered back and forth before forward motion was commanded. However, the activity stopped when one wheel encountered excessive resistance while turning, likely a result of the buried state of the wheels. The plan ahead is to straighten the wheels and proceed with a forward extrication drive.

[Hungry4info]

I hope they're able to regain the progress they have lost while trying that. They seem to move backwards quite a bit.

[Tesheiner]

Errr.... Emily Lakdawalla is reporting that extrication attempts have ended for the winter:

I see the imaging sequences pattern of a driving attempt on today's plan; the last one?

[Circum]

I need to preface this by saying I absolutely believe in the rover team and also I haven't given up hope yet, but, given that we've seen an infinite variety of queries along the line of "Why don't they just push themselves out with the arm?", I am curious myself and also wonder why I don't remember seeing discussion about: How many hours of RAT-brushing might it theoretically take to exhume the front wheels: Hundreds; thousands -- millions??

[sgendreau]

Errr.... Emily Lakdawalla is reporting that extrication attempts have ended for the winter:

marsroverdriver denies it: http://twitter.com/marsroverdriver

Says they have "another six or eight" things lined up to try.


This team's emotional stamina is extraordinary. They just will not give up.

[fredk]

I thought it was odd that she burried that quote deep in a planetary mission roundup. Surely the end of extrication attempts would deserve a story of its own.

[ElkGroveDan]

marsroverdriver denies it: http://twitter.com/marsroverdriver

Says they have "another six or eight" things lined up to try.

I hope so. I haven't given them my solution yet.

[Hungry4info]

I am curious myself and also wonder why I don't remember seeing discussion about: How many hours of RAT-brushing might it theoretically take to exhume the front wheels: Hundreds; thousands -- millions??

I know you aren't seriously suggesting this, but for the sake of argument. I would assume that any dust that gets splattered away by the brush would go in a fairly wide amount of directions. So a lot of what is brushed/drilled aside will settle somewhere that will need more brushing/drilling. I'll throw "thousands" as my purely informed guess.

[nprev]

Yeah--I'm thinkin' that Spirit has not yet begun to fight! Wise to remember that the extraction effort is being managed in a very careful, deliberate manner as it should be. Nothing's gonna happen fast, no matter how much we'd all like it to.

[Hungry4info]

The wheels have straightened out. It seems that that whole exercise sunk us down some more.

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[Guest_cassioli_*]

wouldn't it be weird if winter frost made terrain so hard that wheels could eventually have enough grip to get the rover out?
if just we could have enough power during winter....

I need to preface this by saying I absolutely believe in the rover team and also I haven't given up hope yet, but, given that we've seen an infinite variety of queries along the line of "Why don't they just push themselves out with the arm?", I am curious myself and also wonder why I don't remember seeing discussion about: How many hours of RAT-brushing might it theoretically take to exhume the front wheels: Hundreds; thousands -- millions??

rather than drilling, I'd use it for moving: moving sand away from wheels, and/or moving small rocks near the wheels, in such a way that they will fall under the wheels when they move sand. I remember that, on earth, when a car get stuck in sand, you need to put something under the wheels to get out, and I can't see planty of little rocks around the rover.
This could maybe damage the robotic arm... but it would be in any case better having a roving camera rather than a stuck rover with working robotic arm.

[PaulM]

wouldn't it be weird if winter frost made terrain so hard that wheels could eventually have enough grip to get the rover out?

When I made a similar suggestion following statement from the extraction FAQ was pointed out to me:

DOES THE CONSISTENCY OF THE SOIL CHANGE WITH TEMPERATURE?
COULD THEY DRIVE AT NIGHT WHEN IT IS COLD AND THE SOIL FROZEN - the temperatures on Mars are cold anyway - certainly colder at night. More data needs to be collected, but driving at night has been considered.

The problem with our suggestion is that even in the Summer it is very cold and dry in Gusev crater and frost has never been seen on the ground by either rover. Frost has only been seen on the rovers themselves.

[Guest_Oersted_*]

I still go with flapping the solar panels.

No, seriously, to me Spirit is beginning to look well and truly stuck for good... I wonder if they have something up their sleeve, but given that they probably tried their best in the first attempts, I'm not optimistic.