Posted: Wed, May 18, 2005, 7:23 AM ET (1123 GMT)
The Mars rover Opportunity, stick for weeks in a sand dune, is making gradual progress to extricate itself, mission officials said. The rover got stuck in the dune on April 25, and has remained in place while engineers devised ways for the rover to move, testing those using a prototype rover on Earth. Since last Friday the rover has managed to move several centimeters, the first movement by the rover since becoming stuck. Controllers are backing the rover out of the dune the same way it went in, believe that to be the best way to get the rover out of its current predicament. Once free of the dune, officials plan to plot an alternate course, perhaps over rockier terrain, to avoid the dunes and move towards a crater that is the rover's current destination.

Related Links:

•  New Scientist article
•  AP article