Still stuck, but limping on far past its original mission

Unlucky Mars rover faces worst jam yet: Spirit starts its seventh year on Red Planet still stuck in a sand trap

Though the prognosis of getting Spirit out looks bleak, scientists are not ready to give up yet. But if they exhaust all escape options, they will switch to Plan B and try to tilt the rover to the north where it can get more sunshine to keep running so that it can continue to do science in one spot.

“If we can’t get the rover unstuck, it will become a Mars lander,” Callas said.

Unlike a rover, which performs science experiments as it roams, a lander studies its surroundings while stationary.

I really do hope they can get Spirit unstuck, but even if not, it's done remarkably well considering it was meant for a three-month mission and it's entering it's seventh year. It's really a sort of 'little rover that could'.

You can keep up with Spirit and her sister rover Opportunity at http://twitter.com/MarsRovers.

Two crafts: one dying, the other revived but trapped

First of all, the solar probe Ulysses:

Farewell, Ulysses: Lights Out for Solar Probe

Ulysses Hears the Siren's Song


[Design by Emil Petrinic - http://www.strangegoat.com/ - merchandise at http://www.cafepress.com/strangegoat]

There are videos that show efforts to free Spirit, but my attempts to embed the videos didn't work very well; the original wouldn't work and the update played automatically and had to be turned off. Sorry about that. I've included the links, though, and here's a story about what Spirit is doing in the meantime:

Spirit Rover Begins Making Night Sky Observations

Another concern about one of the Mars missions

NASA rover low on power from Martian dust storm

The solar-powered Spirit produced only 89 watt-hours of energy last weekend, half the normal amount it needs to function. The culprit was a dust storm that moved over Spirit's site near the Martian equatorial plains, blocking sunshine from reaching its solar panels.

To prevent Spirit from depleting its batteries, ground controllers commanded the rover to turn off heaters that warm various instruments. Engineers also instructed the spacecraft to cease communications with Earth until Thursday.

"This is a very dangerous time," said project scientist Bruce Banerdt of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which manages the mission. "If we don't hear from it on Thursday, we'll be extremely concerned."