Free Spirit

The Spirit rover on Mars is stuck. It's gotten bogged down in a pit of soft sand for the past four months, and shows no sign of getting free. The NASA mission team are trying to work out a way to solve the problem, and are testing it using a duplicate rover in a sandbox here on Earth, but the prognosis isn't good.

Spirit has been on Mars more than five (Earth) years and is just plain wearing out. One wheel hasn't worked since 2006, and some of the instruments have quit. Still, it's a tough little machine and the NASA team aren't willing to throw in the towel just yet. At this point, shutting it down would be a bit like shooting your dog.

Meanwhile, Spirit's sister probe, the Opportunity rover, keeps chugging along.