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7/21/09 - Free Spirit: Next Step: Combinations of Basic Moves
As the Mars rover team uses testing at JPL to evaluate possible ways to drive Spirit out of loose soil on Mars, the team is finishing tests of individual "building block" maneuvers and is about to begin stringing some of those together.
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7/16/09 - Test Rover Checks Pivoting Technique
The Mars rover team is using a test rover at JPL to assess various extraction techniques that might get Spirit out of the loose soil of "Troy" on Mars.
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7/14/09 - Mars Dust Devil Has Colorful Effect in Image Series
Scientists have combined a trio of shots taken seconds apart through different colored filters to create a special-effects portrait of a moving dust devil on Mars.
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7/13/09 - Free Spirit: Rover Engineers Test More Maneuvers
Engineers checking possible rover movements to get Spirit out of the "Troy" sand trap on Mars are evaluating how a comparable rover at JPL fares in a crablike backward drive.
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7/10/09 - Heat Shield Readied for Next Mars Rover
Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, has finished building and testing the heat shield for protecting the Curiosity rover of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory project.
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7/10/09 - Tests Evaluating Crabwalk Moves
On firm ground, NASA's Mars Exploration Rovers can make crablike moves by turning all four steerable wheels to the same side angle, then rotating the wheels either forward or backward.
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7/8/09 - Second Rover Test Maneuver Is Backwards
Engineers used straight-backward driving of a test rover on Earth on Wednesday, July 8, as they evaluate maneuvers that might be useful for getting Spirit out of a sandtrap on Mars.
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7/6/09 - Rover Extraction Tests Begin
Using a test rover in a sandbox at JPL with special soil simulating Spirit's predicament on Mars, engineers are assessing possible maneuvers for getting Spirit out and onto firmer ground.
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7/1/09 - Free Spirit: Rock Under the Belly
Engineers placed a rock underneath the test rover at JPL on July 1, 2009, to more closely simulate Spirit's predicament on Mars.
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6/30/09 - Free Spirit: Test Rover Rolls In
After several days of preparing a sloped area of soft, fine soil to simulate Spirit's current sandtrap on Mars, the rover team drove a test rover into the material.
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