NASA set to say "Goodbye" to Spirit

NASA is set to end any additional attempts to recover or "wake up" the mars rover Spirit. The last transmission was sent out yesterday, and orbiting craft will continue to listen for a response till the end of the month. However, Spirit went silent over a year ago so chances of hearing back from the rover are pretty slim. Spirit has also been stuck since April 09, and after many failed attempts, NASA decided to give up on freeing the rover, dubbing it a stationary space craft in January 2010 shortly before it went silent.

A formal farewell is planned at NASA headquarters after the Memorial Day holiday and will be televised on NASA TV.

However, Opportunity is still going and NASA does have plans on launching a new craft to explore the surface landing in the summer of 2012.

To me, these rovers have been extraordinary, and seeing the first images from the surface was in many regards the moon landing of my generation. What they accomplished is phenomenal, especially since they were only designed to last 3 months after landing in 2004. Anyone who has access and has not yet seen the IMAX rover presentation should find a planetarium that's playing it and check it out. Absolutely amazing.

Thank you Spirit, and farewell.
Article Source
NASA's News Release

PS - My 200th Post! Yay!

Flagged... Thanks for letting everybody know about this!

I Won't lie, I agree with you that Spirit and Opportunity are the Moon-landing equivalents of the 2000's... The amount of data collected by them (and is STILL being collected by the lone-ranger, Opportunity) is absolutely staggering. Add to that the fact that they FAR exceeded their expected shelf-life be many, MANY months, and you can call the mission one heck of a feather in NASA's cap.

My hat goes off to Spirit, for having been the little rover that could...

BTW Congrats on your 200th post! You earn a star (and a cookie of your chice) for that!

I don't really see the whole point in sending hundreds of millions of dollars over and over to Mars, we already know what it's like there, it's an uninhabitable wasteland, and never will be habitable.

All this focus on Mars is just ridiculous if you ask me. I'd rather they spend money on actual scientific progress, I don't consider broken robots lost in a rocky dustbowl, to be progress.

I think that NASA have done really well with these rovers and its a shame that they have lost Spirit, but sending another one there really isn't gonna give more results unless this new one can mine deep into the planet or dig deep in search for liquid water.

Although the photos are amazing it is essentially a wasteland.

The images captivated the entire world over and over again, Theories, illusions, dreams and possibilities, worth every dollar spent, better than a movie!.
The Human achievment of reaching that goal is awesome. Progress moves foward from such things to greater and greater goals.....

reply to post by Tephra

A) For all we have learned and know, there is still just as much we don't know, that's what discovery and exploration is about.

B) It's not the moon and we can reach it.

C) We learn far more about the planet, our own planet and our solar system from the on-the-surface hands on experience than we could ever learn through a telescope.

D) If we are ever to leave our own world and colonize another, Mars is the most likely candidate, or at the very least, the best testing bed to learn from.

E) Because we can.

reply to post by Tephra


I would disagree. I think that the study of other rocky planets (especially tectonically dead ones like Mars) is very important in our understanding of planetary science as a whole.

There are many possibilities for the types of information we can learn from missions like these. Knowledge that can be used by humanity as a whole. By progressing our understanding of the universe, we benefit greatly. Heck, it's even possible that the study of such rocky planets can help tell us how our planet was formed, and how it works. Maybe we could even uncover data that could be used to help understand earthquakes, helping us create better warning systems and save lives (just a possibility for example).

I think this speaks for itself:

xkcd.com...

Go Spirit!

The little engine that could and DID!.

These two Tiny robotic Titan explorers performed above and way beyond expected design specifications and parameters. To be honest, I'm surprised they lasted as long as they did considering their original mission. I'm sure some day [Hopefully in the not too distant future] they'll be recovered and take their rightful place of honor at the Smithsonian's Air and Space museum.

Next?

Originally posted by SLAYER69

I'm sure some day [Hopefully in the not too distant future] they'll be recovered and take their rightful place of honor at the Smithsonian's Air and Space museum.

I have a better idea: Let's go there and build a museum around Spirit right where it is.

reply to post by ngchunter


ROFLMAO! Thank you for that, that was hilarious! Pure asumness!