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Testing a crabwalk

Testing a crabwalk
Testing a crabwalk After an experiment driving the rover in a crablike motion, MER team members prepare a test setup for a subsequent experiment with all four corner wheels angled to the right. Clockwise from top: Scott Maxwell, Pauline Hwang, Kim Lichtenberg. This work on July 9, 2009, was part of a series of tests at JPL designed to determine the best way to get Spirit out of a Martian patch of soft soil called Ulysses in an area known as Troy, where the rover's wheels have dug in. The test setup, in a box that team members are calling the "dust bin," simulates the situation at Troy. The box holds about 2.7 tons of a powdery mixture of diatomaceous earth and fire clay. This powdery material has physical properties similar to the soil at Troy. The top surface is sloped at 10 degrees. NASA / JPL-Caltech