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I'm Ashley strip and I'm one of the

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rover drivers here at the Jet Propulsion

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Laboratory and I'm here with the latest

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free spirit update this week we're

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continuing crab driving testing that

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means we're steering the wheels to

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different angles and trying to get the

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rover to move sideways along the hill

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we've done some testing both with

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forward crabbing and now we're doing

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backward crabbing and we've now got the

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wheel steered to several different

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angles the test you can see behind me

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we've got the wheels all scared to 20

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degrees and they're all driving

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backwards to try to pull the rover

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backward and uphill away from these

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potential obstacles that we seem to have

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run into in our first attempt to get out

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of the sand trap we break each test into

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several smaller pieces so that we can

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measure the rover's progress along the

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way that way we can tell whether the

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rover is making steady progress

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throughout the test or whether it may

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come up against a wall and only make

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good progress at the beginning in which

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case then we know that extra wheel turns

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are not going to make much of a

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difference one of the great things

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that's happened along with spirit

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sitting still for so long is of course

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we've been parked in a really windy

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location and the winds have come along

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and cleaned off the solar panels

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tremendously so now we have lots of

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powers which not only gives us many

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hours a day where we can conduct

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scientific experiments and do our

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mobility tests on Mars to try to get the

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rover out but we've bought ourselves a

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lot more time before Spirit will even

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have to consider parking for the next