Spirits Predicament

Today NASA announced that the Spirit Rover on Mars is in a bit of trouble. 9 months of trying to extricate the rover from the sand trap it drove into have caused a long term issue for the rover. To survive the harsh winter coming up in May the rover will need to have it's survival heaters running. Those heaters are run by solar power and the current location of the rover might allow too much martian dust to cover the rovers solar panels. In the past the rover controllers have programmed the rovers to tilt the panels at a certain angle to prevent dust accumulation but Spirit is at an angle that may keep the angle too low. They are studying whether Spirit may be more viable to perform stationary tests until the rover eventually fails. Sad but I hope we can gain more insight before Spirit does leave it's twin alone on Mars, which looks to be happening soon.