Has the Mars Rover team examined the possibility of using the Spirit rovers instrument arm to maybe help push it out of its current predicament?
Dr. Stroupe: Several people have questions about using the IDD [Instrument Deployment Device, or robotic arm] to help get Spirit out. The IDD is very low in mass and was only designed to exert the forces needed to firmly place instruments on science targets. That means moving it around barely shifts the rover’s center of gravity and attitude. The arm can only exert at most about 20 pounds of pressure, which is only 13 percent of what would be needed to lift the rover’s mass on Mars. With that level of force we again could only minimally affect the rover’s attitude, and would not be able to move rocks of any significant size. And if we tried, we would definitely risk damaging the instruments or the IDD itself. If all else fails, we may give one of these strategies a try and hope that the small difference is enough, but these are all very risky, and so far down our list of options.
