Spirit is the name of a robot which lives on Mars. It’s from Earth originally, but it moved there almost six years ago and since then has been helping us to study the rocks and dust of the planet’s surface, as well as some of the geological activity going on there. When NASA sent it there it’s mission was planned to last for 90 Martian days (or ‘sols‘ as they’re named - each is about 40 minutes longer than an Earth day because of Mars’s slightly slower rotation). Those 90 days were a success, as were the next 90 and the next: the mission has now been going on for over 2000 sols.
That’s a long time to spend in such an arid, dusty environment, crawling over and around rocks at the whim of people 300 million miles distant, with no access to repair teams or cleaning. It would change anyone, and it’s certainly changed Spirit. Here’s a composite self-portrait, formed from many small pictures taken by the rover’s cameras pointing down at itself:
Spirit, a self-portrait
And here’s another self-portrait, showing the build-up of red Martian dust on Spirit’s clean, shiny exterior:
Spirit with dust, a self-portrait
Since that second picture was taken the winds have blown a lot of the dust away, allaying fears that it might interfere with Spirit’s intake of energy through her solar panels, though more will continue to build up over time. The new paint-job isn’t the only change that six years have brought about on Spirit, either. In 2006 one of her six wheels became jammed, and since then the robot’s been driving backwards and dragging the wheel along in the dirt. In a way that’s actually turned out to be useful, since the lame wheel scrapes up the top layer of soil and lets the robot’s cameras see material they couldn’t otherwise.
Then, early this May, Spirit got stuck. Driving over a patch of seemingly-ordinary soil, she sunk into soft ground hidden underneath and was unable to pull herself out again. NASA is still in the process of trying to find a way to extricate the robot, but further complications are hindering it: a second wheel is experiencing difficulties, and there were also problems with Spirit’s memory (which seem to be solved for now). There’s even a website, Free Spirit, where you can read updates of their progress.
It would be a shame if Spirit weren’t able to drive again. But she’s given more than five years of good service, vastly outperforming expectations, and she’s been through a lot out there while teaching us about our planet’s neighbour. If NASA’s engineers don’t manage to extricate her from this soft spot, I think perhaps she can settle into a well-earned retirement.
This post was partly inspired by a very thought-provoking entry at Cumbrian Sky.
