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Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Spirit remains trapped in Martian sand

PASADENA, Calif., Dec. 8 (UPI) -- NASA engineers attempting to free the Mars rover Spirit from loose Martian sand since April say the results of their attempts so far are not encouraging.

A series of diagnostic tests conducted on Spirit's right-rear wheel last week were designed to investigate stalls that occurred Nov. 28 and earlier. Those diagnostics, the space agency said, included rotor-resistance tests at three temperatures and a one-radian (about 57 degrees) forward motion test.

"The plan ahead is to explore a set of hypotheses: possible motor failure, possible internal gearbox jam, possible external jam (e.g., a rock in the wheel)," NASA said in a statement. "Commands being developed for Spirit's activities (Tuesday and Wednesday) will include more diagnostics to explore these hypotheses."

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