Spirit, one of the two Mars rovers, seems to be stuck in the Martian soil with its right front wheel halfway buried. Spirit was exploring a low plateau when the loose soil resulted in slippage which is threatening the rover's life. This turn of events may indeed be the end of the Spirit rover.

NASA is aware of the dilemma and is experimenting with earth driven replications to find a solution for the stuck rover. If Spirit keeps spinning its wheels, the jam will worsen which may result in the chassis making contact with the Martian rocks. If that were to happen, dislodging the rover would become more of a challenge.

This problem may take several weeks to fix and NASA has already stopped sending commands to the complex machinery. NASA is not giving up hope just yet, but they are not sure which way this situation will progress.

Even if we do lose our beloved rover Spirit, we must be thankful that it's life on Mars lasted as long as it did. The original lifespan of Spirit and Opportunity (the two rovers) was estimated at three months but they certainly outlived their life expectancy.

Spirit has been showing signs of aging lately and experiencing sudden reboots from the computer onboard, failure to respond to calls, and even amnesia. Scientists do not know the exact reason for the malfunctions, up they do know that Spirit performed well above and beyond everyone's expectations.