Stuck in a soft patch of sand since April, its whole right side sounds damaged, thanks to the front-right wheel which hasn't worked since 2006, and now the back-right wheel that has seized up trying to get out of the sand.

Solar-powered, the Spirit Rover normally rests up each winter with its solar back angled towards any available sunlight, with enough power soaking in to keep its inside-bits from freezing. But if it can't move out of the sand pit it's stuck in, the Spirit Rover won't be able to soak up those vital rays of light.

NASA, if we all collected enough tinned soup and woolly jumpers to send to Mars, would that help? [New Scientist]

At least, that's the plan. Really they're not expecting much from their efforts. Even though NASA has spent half a year planning how to get the rover out of the loose sand it's stuck in, every step will be dependent on what happens during the previous one. Right now NASA only has six forward rotations of Spirit's wheels planned. They anticipate extreme slippage, and will have to reevaluate the next steps once that first miniscule motion is completed.

If work continues at that pace, it's easy to see why escape efforts are planned to last until 2010. Even if Spirit can't get out of the sand trap that swallowed it, there's still plenty of good the rover can do while stationary. Just know that, whatever happens, we're all pulling for you little buddy. [Network World via Slashdot]

You see, while Opportunity continues to function nominally after nearly six years on planet, its companion Spirit, on the opposite side of the planet, is really showing signs of age.

As we all know, Spirit has been stuck in deep Martian sand for some time now. That hasn't changed. What has changed is the rover's memory. It's going. NASA scientists are calling the issue "amnesia," and it isn't the first time this phenomenon has affected the rover.

Basically, what happens during an amnesia event is the rover fails to record any observations—scientific or otherwise—in its flash memory during power down time at night. Worse still, the cause is unknown. My uneducated guess is a Martian is playing with a magnet. Update: Fine. Magnets don't affect flash. I get it. It's now a ray gun.

The events are a nuisance for now, but could become crippling if they start happening more often. It's troubling, yes, but we must remind ourselves these rovers were built for 90-day missions. Spirit is currently going on five years, nine months. Even so, get well soon. [MSNBC]

It comes from Mars. What you are looking at here is the belly of Spirit, taken on Sol 1925—June 2, 2009—by the rovers' microscopic imager instrument, which is located on the end of her robotic arm. The image's tilt—which is out of focus because the microscope is designed to focus on 2.4-inch targets—shows the actual orientation of the rover, skewed to the right. Hopefully, this will help Jet Propulsion Laboratory engineers to figure a way to free her. [JPL]

Right now, NASA's Spirit rover status is:

Spirit: Embedded and Cleaner >>

In other words: Spirit —which was suffering some problems already is stuck in Mars' Home Plate, with his telescopic nipple antennas trying to get some directions from its masters down at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. They believe that the rover is sunk in dirt or its wheels are rolling up in the air, perched on a rock under its undercarriage.

Whatever it is, the good news is that the scientists at the JPL may have a chance to save the day once again, thanks to the help of Spirit's fellow robots. The Odyssey orbiter is downloading data from Spirit as I write these lines—trying to figure out what the hell is going on down in the surface—while twin-rover Opportunity is practicing moves to take photos of itself, in the hope that Spirit can replicate them and send Earth a picture of whatever is holding him. And down here, the JPL is using a third rover over a terrain similar to the one in which they suppose Spirit is in, practicing maneuvers to free it.

In addition to the problem, one of the wheels is broken, although NASA engineers have been able to get a signal from it and think there may be a possibility to get it working again. They are cautious but optimistic, "taking incremental steps" to free the rover, which has been working way beyond it's supposed expiry date. Let's hope they pull out another miracle once again. [NASA via Wired]

The comment came up in a forum, and argued that the alien creature was obviously a carnivore because of his "narrow pointed small mouth." Other commenters smashed the alien-spotter: "The coronal ridge shows ample structure to support the musculature of antennae, although none are visible in this view."

Obviously—and unfortunately—it's just a rock. A rock or an alien who covered himself in beach sand and fell asleep as the Martian seas evaporated. [Daily Telegraph]

This is a very dangerous time. If we don't hear from it on Thursday, we'll be extremely concerned.

The culprit, again: A sudden dust storm over the Martian equatorial plains. This storm has covered the solar panels during the last days and, as a result, the Mars Spirit only produced 89 watt-hours last weekend. This is half the amount it needs to keep functioning. Scientists at the JPL have turned off heating for many instruments in the hope that the rover's batteries won't be completely depleted.

In this case, however, the Mars Spirit rover is well passed its expiry date. With five years working in the planet, the mission has vastly exceeded even the wildest dreams of NASA's researchers. Also, keep in mind that Spirit's twin brother—Opportunity—is still working at the other side of the planet.

But still, seriously NASA, how can you send things that run on solar power to the dustiest planet in the Solar System and forget to include some kind of Windex cleaning device all the gear? Couldn't you guys add some kind of mini-Roomba to crawl the panels of the next one? [NASA and Daily Mail and Posts by Phoenix Mars Lander at Gizmodo]

Obligatory dust-related kick-ass song here:

The Spirit stores 1GB of tunes, including 15 preloaded patriotic tracks like Lee Greenwood's God Bless The USA. At just 2"x 1 3/8, it seems a little small for American Hummer-driving, Big-Gulp-drinking tastes. But who are we to ever question something that in some way almost resembles the American flag? Pre-order your Zvue Spirit today for $35.99. [Zvue via anythingbutipod]

Yes, due to a budget cut of $4 million, only one of the Mars rovers will survive, and that one is Opportunity. Spirit, which has been chugging along handily for four years on Mars, will just be left where it is despite being fully able to continue doing research.

And while yes, there are plenty of important things that we should be doing with our tax dollars, we're spending well over that $4 million that NASA needed every day on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, so its sad to see such a promising robot with so much potential left to rot. RIP, Spirit. [Physorg via io9]

The two rovers were pretty much chowderheads when they first landed, but now they're quite a bit smarter because of their newly-uploaded software. Now they can be more picky about their choice of snapshots, recognizing that, for example, a rock they're looking at is the same one they saw earlier, but just from a different angle. This keeps the little robots from taking multiple pictures of the same thing.

Perhaps scientists will teach them how to reproduce, and then an entire population of the little droids will be there to meet their earthling overlords if we ever arrive. – Charlie White

Old Rovers Learn New Tricks to Kick Off Year Four [Red Orbit]