Wheel Failure Prevents Climb To Recharge Batteries

NASA announced Tuesday that after three attempts, the Mars Rover Spirit -- hampered by a failed wheel -- has failed to reach its preferred destination to wait out the Martian winter, and will instead rest on a closer, lower slope.

Engineers had hoped Spirit would be able to climb McCool Hill to recharge its batteries in the sunlight as winter descends on the Martian surface. Last week, Spirit was turned towards a closer slope called Low Ridge. The rover arrived there over the weekend, said principal scientist Steve Squyres of Cornell University, and it will wait out the winter there instead.

As Aero-News reported last month, Spirit's wheel stopped working on its trip to McCool Hill. Scientists tried to compensate by operating the rover in reverse, but the Associated Press reports the wheel kept slipping into a sandy trench in the Martian surface as the rover tried to reach McCool.

While it isn't the ideal location as McCool would have been, Low Ridge should still provide Spirit with needed sunlight to recharge its power cells over the winter -- at least enough to then direct the rover to McCool in the spring.

It is unlikely, however, that Spirit's broken wheel will ever operate again.

"We are anticipating it will be a five-wheeled rover for the rest of the mission," Squyres said.

Spirit's twin rover, Opportunity, is located closer to the Martian equator and will be able function throughout the winter.

FMI: www.nasa.gov