One of Mars Rover's Wheels Stops Working

[Eugene]

One of Mars Rover's Wheels Stops Working

March 18, 2006

PASADENA, Calif. Mar 17, 2006 (AP) --One of the six wheels on the Mars rover Spirit has stopped
working and the solar-powered robot must propel itself up a slope to catch enough sunshine to keep
operating, NASA said Friday.

The right front wheel previously had an episode of balkiness but this week the motor that turns
the wheel stopped working, the space agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory said in a statement.

"It is not drawing any current at all," Jacob Matijevic, rover engineering team chief, said
in the statement.

<snip>

Spirit is again dragging the wheel as it tries to reach a position where it can get as much sunlight
as possible during winter, but although the point of minimum sunshine is more than 100 days away,
there is already only enough to power about one hour of driving on flat ground per day, JPL said.

<snip>

Link: http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=1739826

[Poppyseedman]

1. Call "AAA"

I hope NASA keep up their dues.

[wakeme2008]

2. I love the little engines that could

"Spirit and its twin, Opportunity, landed on opposite sides of the Red Planet in January 2004 and have long outlasted missions originally planned to span 90 Martian days, which are a different length than Earth days.

Spirit's new wheel problem occurred this week during the rover's 779th Martian day. "

[Dudley_DUright]

3. Even with a limp, Spirit still has lots of spirit and spunk

They only really expected the two rovers to work for about three months, so all the extra time is icing on the cake.

[ixion]

4. it's too bad they didn't plan for this and implement a transmission

of some sort to disengage the motor.

Just a thought.

[benburch]

10. They only planned to have it operate 90 days.

I don't think they imagined that these would survive long enough for the motors to give out.

[TalkingDog]

5. Maybe it can just go in BIG circles....n/t

[benburch]

11. Oh, I'm sure they can make it run straight.

Since they could simply disable the opposite side's motor too.

[YankeyMCC]

6. Get the little red people to climb in and fix it

or get behind and push!

[NMDemDist2]

7. 700 days into a 90 day mission

well done!

[beam me up scottie]

8. Thanks for the reminder.

They did a fantastic job.

[soothsayer]

9. It probably has a boot on the wheel and 700 tickets under the

windshield wiper

[enlightenment]

12. I know I am anthropomorphizing these machines,

but my first thought was "ahh, shucks. poor little critter."

:crazy:

Seriously though, it would be great if they could transfer some of that technology to machines on this planet -- I am sooo tired of planned obsolescence.

[Canuckistanian]

13. Easily done - but you couldn't afford it

The best materials, impeccable engineering and triple redundancy - almost everything that goes into space has these qualities.

But, as we know, quality has it's price, and it ain't in our budgets.

[enlightenment]

14. "Quality has its price" -- isn't that the truth!

I'd settle for okay material, slightly less-than-perfect engineering, and at least checking it out before it hits the door . . .