Planned Rover Test to Run a Week or More

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/features.cfm?feature=2279

Planned Rover Test to Run a Week or More
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
August 13, 2009

Mars rover team members are planning a long-duration experiment with
the
test rover at JPL beginning next week. This test will check whether
favorable motion seen in earlier tests can be sustained to gain as
much
distance in the sandbox as Spirit would need to complete on Mars to
escape its predicament.

The team expects to drive the test rover for several hundred meters,
or
yards, worth of wheel rotations over the course of a week or more
without starting over. Steering direction will be changed several
times
during the run. Earlier tests have run for one or two days. In between
tests, the team resets the sandbox to simulate Spirit's current
starting
position at the Mars location called "Troy."

Based on test results, the team might begin sending driving commands
to
Spirit during the second week of September. Any progress by Spirit
toward getting out of the soft soil where it is embedded is expected
to
be slow. With its right front wheel disabled since 2006, Spirit's
success at getting out of the sand trap is not guaranteed. Both Spirit
and Opportunity have operated on Mars more than five years longer than
their initially planned missions of three months.

During the weeks of testing at JPL designed to identify the best
escape
strategy, Spirit has been productively using the tools on its robotic
arm to analyze multiple layers of soil at Troy.

For more updates, please visit the Free Spirit site:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/freespirit/