NASA announced today that Mars rover Spirit cannot be freed from its Martian sandtrap. Now the rover will begin a second career as a stationary science platform.

“Spirit is not dead; it has just entered another phase of its long life,” said Doug McCuistion, director of the Mars Exploration Program at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

“We told the world last year that attempts to set the beloved robot free may not be successful,” adds McCuistion. “It looks like Spirit’s current location on Mars will be its final resting place.”

“There’s a class of science we can do only with a stationary vehicle that we had put off during the years of driving,” said Steve Squyres, a researcher at Cornell University and principal investigator for Spirit and Opportunity. [...]

Source: Nasa Science – click here for full article