Mars Rover Experiencing Wheel Problems
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - One of the two rovers exploring the surface of Mars is having problems with the motor operating one of its six wheels, creating the possibility that the wheel may fail, NASA (news - web sites) scientists said on Tuesday.
In a briefing at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, scientists said the right front wheel motor on the rover Spirit is drawing increasing amounts of electrical current compared to the other wheel motors. Mission manager Mark Adler said the motor might only have 200 meters or so of traveling left before it dies.
"Spirit is beginning to show some signs of age," Adler said. "It's possible that other wheels will eventually meet the same fate but we don't know when or how."
But he noted that the rover could easily operate on five wheels and said mission managers were considering shutting the wheel off entirely, except for the toughest climbs up steep terrain. Adler also said the scientists would look at running tests of the rover's operations on four or even three wheels.
Meanwhile, Spirit's twin, the rover Opportunity, continued its descent into a stadium-sized crater called Endurance. Last week scientists said they would send Opportunity into the crater despite the risk it might not be able to emerge.
But Adler said the rover was handling the crater well so far, with instances of sliding about equal to or less than what they had expected to see.
"We have no reason to believe we won't be able to get out of the crater and we're continuing down into it," Adler said.
NASCAR is sending a top pit crew to fix....expected time to effect repairs is 14.3 seconds.
LVM
I've got my fingers crossed over the Saturn probe!
Art Bell reports that NASA detected several Martian homies propping the rover up on blocks and attempting to snatch the chrome. A reptilian cruiser conducted a drive-by vaporizing and offed the Martian homies. Unfortunately, they didn't have a jack to fix the one wheel. AAA claims the rover's out of their service area. So, looks like the rover will have to wait until the Martian program proposed by President Bush 43 lifts off in a few years.