[X] My Assistant

[Burmese]

Over at Astrobiology magazine's web site they have the 4th installment of Joy Crisps' presentation and there are some nice nuggets of information in them. She says they believe that Spirit's RAT is about shot, having done 15 grindings, mostly in hard basaltic rocks, while Opportunity's RAT has done 22 grindings but appears to be in good shape still.

http://www.astrobio.net/news/modules.php?o...order=0&thold=0

[anorthosite]

[quote=Burmese,Jun 16 2005, 06:11 AM]
*** Spirit's RAT is about shot, ***

Has there been a decision to discontinue the use of the Spirit RAT? Recent rocks that looked like good science have been brushed but not drilled. Or do they happen to belong to rock types that look about the same externally as they would internally, based on previous pre- and post-RAT results?

What happens if you use a worn-out RAT? Does it just fail to drill effectively, or is there a risk of damage to the arm that suggests it is better to not to try?

Steve Pendleton