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PIA12171: Laying the Groundwork for a Rover Test
A test setup at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory enables experiments with maneuvers being considered for use by NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit to get Spirit out of soft soil where it has become embedded.
 Mission:  Mars Exploration Rover (MER) 
 Spacecraft:  Spirit
 Product Size:  2288 x 1058 pixels (w x h) 
 Produced By:  JPL 
 Full-Res TIFF:  PIA12171.tif (7.271 MB)
 Full-Res JPEG:  PIA12171.jpg (218.2 kB)  

Click on the image above to download a moderately sized image in JPEG format (possibly reduced in size from original)

Original Caption Released with Image:

A test setup at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory enables experiments with maneuvers being considered for use by NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit to get Spirit out of soft soil where it has become embedded. In this image from Aug. 12, 2009, rover team members are moving a board used in getting the setup ready for the next test. From left: Matt Van Kirk, Julie Townsend, Tam Nguyen. Once the board is in place, the test crew applies weight to it to moderately compress the mixture of clay powder and diatomaceous earth being used as a simulation of the Martian soil underneath Spirit.

To see updates on the efforts to free the Spirit rover, visit the JPL Free Spirit website.

Image Credit:
NASA/JPL-Caltech

Image Addition Date:
2009-08-13