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The Planetary Society Blog

By Emily Lakdawalla

That's a lot of motion for a "stuck" rover!

Feb. 6, 2010 | 07:14 PST | 15:14 UTC

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The Jet Propulsion Laboratory posted a video to YouTube today showing what seems to be a remarkable amount of motion out of Spirit lately, especially given that she's supposed to be a "stationary science platform" now. The video consists animations from Spirit's forward and rear Hazard Avoidance Cameras -- the belly-mounted, fish-eye cameras that help Spirit understand the terrain immediately in front of and behind it.

Spirit's Last Moves Before Winter
Recent drives by the Spirit rover from Jan. 14 to Feb. 4, 2010 (Sols 2145 to 2165) moved the center of the rover approximately 13.4 inches (34 centimeters) backwards. Since Jan 26 (sol 2157), drive commands have concentrated on placing Spirit into a favorable tilt toward the sun as the Martian winter approaches.
Credit: NASA/JPL

A little more context to these animations was provided by rover driver Scott Maxwell via his Twitter feed, which I've expanded on a bit in brackets:

Yaw [that is, sideways twisting to rover motion rather than forward or backward motion is] produced by three wheels driving on one side, one wheel on the other. [We are] Allowing yaw to [achieve a] configuration that reduces shadowing [presumably, by things like the mast and high-gain antenna onto the solar panels, something that can reduce available solar power substantially].
*Still* not fully clear to me why backward [driving] is so much better [i.e. more productive] than forward. But I'll take it now, and understand it later.
The HAZCAM animations [above] are ones I made this morning to better understand our #FreeSpirit progress to date.
I love 'em [the animations] -- like an old-style, choppy, black-and-white movie, but from the surface of another world.
In the animations, Spirit's center moves [about] 34cm; the [left front] wheel moves [about] 80cm. "Look at our 'stationary' rover go!" said rover driver Kevin Talley.
Note that we took more images in earlier sols, fewer in later ones, so it looks like there's an acceleration. It's actually slow & steady.

Don't get too excited -- this is either the last drive or the next-to-last drive we will see out of Spirit for the rest of the winter, due to declining power levels. But it is an awfully promising amount of motion for a stuck rover, and it gives us something besides stationary science to look forward to in the Martian spring, about an Earth year from now.

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Comments

with that amount of travel she may get out then full power is restored in spring,can't wait!

#1 - kam75 - 02/06/2010 - 07:45

Sorry, but as the post explained, that movement was pretty much just pivoting around the two stuck wheels. Spirit might be able to spin around a bit in a certain radius, but it's not going anywhere with only one wheel working on one side, even without the sand.

#2 - Philip Mueller - 02/06/2010 - 10:25

Ding, ding, ding, TILT!!!

Come on Spirit, get a bit tipsy. :-)

#3 - ChrisP - 02/06/2010 - 21:17

Looks like they'll be able to position it very well for winter. Spirit has lots more science to do come spring!

#4 - Philip Mueller - 02/06/2010 - 21:51

To perform the thesis abstract related to this good topic supposes to be not easy but you deal with that. If any writer was like, we will never have got problems with the thesis writing.

#5 - Lily18 - 02/07/2010 - 17:47

She's not done yet

@Philip: Actually all the people I've spoken with on the MER team (both scientists and engineers) seem to have real hope that they will be able to free her, come spring.

#6 - Emily Lakdawalla - 02/08/2010 - 14:33

Solar panels

When Spirit launched, the solar panels were folded up inside the airbags, then flattened out after landing.

Now that Spirit is (fairly) stationary, would it be possible to tilt some of the flaps to get the same effect as tilting the rover?

Or are they on the wrong alignment?

#7 - Mike Richards - 02/10/2010 - 15:03

Nope, all those deployment things that un-origamied Spirit out of her lander were one-time events; she can't be folded back up. That would have introduced needless complexity and mass, as well as lots of new ways for things to break.

#8 - Emily Lakdawalla - 02/12/2010 - 13:54


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