Spirit Looks Ahead to a Third Martian Winter

At the end of a long day of exploration, rugged terrain can be mighty daunting. On Mars, NASA's Spirit rover has encountered boulder-strewn slopes, while having less energy due to dust-coated solar panels. Having endured two Martian winters (May-September, 2004 and April-November, 2006), Spirit's handler's have already started scouting out potential locations within driving distance where the rover might survive another southern-hemisphere Martian winter (March-October, 2008). Getting there will take some careful navigating since many of the slopes leading down from the top of "Home Plate" are too steep for the rover to cross safely with its dragging right front wheel.