Rover Opportunity Freed From Mars Sand Dune
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From Times Staff and Wire Reports
The Mars rover Opportunity has resumed roaming the Martian surface after scientists freed it from a sand dune where it had been mired for nearly five weeks, NASA officials said.
Opportunity’s wheels started slipping April 26 during a planned 295-foot trip. While trying to drive over a foot-high sand dune, the robotic explorer stopped moving, its wheels hub-deep in soft soil. Engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Canada Flintridge freed the rover by spinning its wheels to plow through the sand.
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