NASA Accepts Defeat Over Mars Spirit Rover

[Boggy1 45]

 Some really sad news popped up on my Home Page today.

The US space agency (Nasa) has admitted defeat in its battle to free the Spirit rover from its Martian sand trap.

The vehicle became stuck in soft soil back in May last year and all the efforts to extricate it have failed.

Nasa says Spirit, which landed on the Red Planet just over six years ago, will now live out its remaining days as a static science station.

The robot geologist has taken thousands of images and found evidence in Mars' rocks of a wetter, warmer past.

"Spirit has encountered a golfer's worst nightmare - the sand trap that no matter how many strokes you take, you can't get out of it," said Doug McCuistion, director of the Mars exploration programme at Nasa headquarters in Washington DC.

"But this is not a day to mourn Spirit; this is not a day of loss at this point. Spirit will continue to make contributions to science."

Like a 'polar bear'

The robot's predicament has been exacerbated by the failure of two of its six wheels. Without the additional traction, the agency now accepts that further efforts to try to escape the soft soil will be fruitless.

Instead, the mission team is concentrating on trying to get the rover tilted in a manner that will maximise the amount of sunlight falling on its solar panels during the approaching winter months. Engineers have a plan to rock the vehicle back and forth to acquire a more favourable posture.

Even so, it is likely Spirit will maintain so little energy in its batteries that it will go into hibernation, perhaps as soon as April. It will not emerge from that state until August or September, when the Sun gets high enough in the Martian sky to power up the rover's systems.

"The rover will be like a polar bear, hibernating; and it could be for many months - of the order of six months," explained John Callas, Spirit's project manager at Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

"We have to be prepared to go through a period where we are not hearing from the rover for an extended length of time."

Far from being downbeat, Professor Steve Squyres, the rover's principal investigator, expressed some excitement at the scientific possibilities of a static vehicle.

He said the signal from a stationary Spirit could be tracked very accurately, to measure how much Mars wobbles on its axis. This could establish definitively whether the planet had a solid or a liquid core - information that scientists could use to better understand the planet's magnetic history.

This was, he said, "totally new science, never been done before - really fundamental stuff".

"This is something that I didn't really think very much about when we put a rover on the surface of Mars because we were thinking about the geology on the surface. But when you delve deeply into what this vehicle is capable of, you find new tricks; and it's something we're really excited about."

Watery past

Spirit was one of two rovers that Nasa landed on the planet in the January of 2004. The second vehicle, Opportunity, continues to roll freely on the surface.

Spirit was targeted at the 170km-wide Gusev Crater, a near-equatorial location in the southern hemisphere that orbital images had suggested might once have held a giant lake.

The investigation of this watery history got off to a slow start. Spirit initially found rocks that had undergone very limited alteration by exposure to moisture.

It was only after a 2.5km drive to nearby hills that the instrumented robot discovered rocks and soils that had experienced extensive exposure to water.

Nasa has spent more than $900m (£560m) on its Mars Exploration Rover programme, from design through to current operations. At the moment, the agency is spending about $20m a year.

The data acquired by the vehicles has generated about 100 scholarly papers, including special editions of the leading international journals Science and Nature.

This is coupled with the incredibly sad news that the Mars Pheonix Lander has not broadcast a wake-up signal to the orbiting Odyssey Probe. Mars Pheonix shut down in November 2008 when the lack of sunlight during the martian winter caused its solar panels to loose operational energy. It was then likely covered with several inches of frozen carbon dioxide. 

NASA has been attempting to contact the lander now that the winter is over; but there has been no result as yet. Attempts to contact will be tried again later in February and March. 

[TheNewTeddy 5]

I was hoping they would both last forever, really. They just seemed to go and go and go!

[astronelson 339]

It's a sad end to what has been such a massive success, but luckily it will still serve a scientific purpose.

When we get to Mars, and I do believe we shall get to Mars, this should become a protected historic site.

[Easy Bakes 253]

They couldnt last forever, and the other one is still going.

Go Science!

[Barbarossa 51]

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  Edited September 8, 2012 by Barbarossa  

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Both have exceeded expectations. This is quite a feather in NASA's cap. Now, I guess they need to call the AAA.

[Roger51 381]

NOOOO save the young ones....anyway it served its purpose on mars and hopefully one day people will fetch it!!

[Z77 3]

Definately something to be proud of. Lasting 6 years and destined to last longer

[Za 164]

Like many of you have said, it far outlasted it's life expectancy. What was it- something in the ballpark of 6 months to a year? Those two rovers have made quite the contribution to our knowledge of Mars. May Opportunity continue to work forever

Though it is a bummer that Phoenix is on the fritz. I remember seeing those first pictures of the ice and being so excited

[Patricius Maximus 236]

It is sort of sad news that Sprit is stuck and cannot get out, but Spirit and its twin Opportunity (which is still going strong) have lasted 6 years, 12 times what they expected, and both are still fully operational. Spirit may be stuck, but it will continue on investigating Mars.

This just shows that it pays big time to invest in the future. Just imagine how little we would know about Mars had NASA not spent all that money on the rovers. A lesson which should be applied to Obama's reckless redlining of the Constellation program.

[Easy Bakes 253]

Originally posted by: Patricius Maximus

It is sort of sad news that Sprit is stuck and cannot get out, but Spirit and its twin Opportunity (which is still going strong) have lasted 6 years, 12 times what they expected, and both are still fully operational. Spirit may be stuck, but it will continue on investigating Mars.

This just shows that it pays big time to invest in the future. Just imagine how little we would know about Mars had NASA not spent all that money on the rovers. A lesson which should be applied to Obama's reckless redlining of the Constellation program.

quote>

Plus all the probes and orbiters that have brought back photos and  other information about the outer planets and thier satalights. one is due at pluto/charon soon. Well i guess 2015 is soon.

[Boggy1 45]

An update...

Spirit failed to respond to a scheduled communication. NASA scientists think the failing sun and its low battery has caused it go into hibernation mode. It will attempt to start back up again and communicate with the orbiting satellite when its battery gains enough charge. But that may be months and months away.

Things arn't looking good for the poor little guy..

[hym 358]

Originally posted by: Boggy1

An update...

Spirit failed to respond to a scheduled communication. NASA scientists think the failing sun and its low battery has caused it go into hibernation mode. It will attempt to start back up again and communicate with the orbiting satellite when its battery gains enough charge. But that may be months and months away.

Things arn't looking good for the poor little guy..quote>

That is assuming that it ever restarts.  NASA is expecting that the Martian winter will bury it under so much ice that it will never be able to communicate get the power to communicate again.

[BoxCarRacer 1]

^hym: They get ice on mars?

[hym 358]

Originally posted by: BoxCarRacer

^hym: They get ice on mars?quote>

Carbon dioxide will freeze on Mars.  It's what we know as "dry ice" but it's ice nonetheless.

[Easy Bakes 253]

Nice Update.

Mabey it will go back online again. whenit gets warmer. It looks like they built this to last.

[Danlikebooks 6]

:-(

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Requiescat in Pacem.

[Barbarossa 51]

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  Edited September 8, 2012 by Barbarossa  

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Originally posted by: Barbarossa

Originally posted by: N_O_Body

Requiescat in Pacem.

quote>

Agreed, although a translation would be nice for those who do not know Latin.  =)

Barbarossa

quote>

If you don't know that one, you might recognize it by its initials (R.I.P.).  Since Latin is the root of so many words in English and so many "romance" languages, it should probably be in the high-school curriculum for grade IX, mandatory for one year.  French, Spanish and Italian owe it so much that a grounding in a little Latin grammar and some of the easier poets surely wouldn't hurt.  Of course, the best teacher for first year Latin studens are Caesar's Gallic Campaigns.  You could then understand why Charles should have been divided into three parts.

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Returning to the main topic:  I don't see the demise of the rover as a defeat for NASA.  It is the logical end of a staggering success.

[Easy Bakes 253]

Romanes Eunt Domus

or better

Robots vado Domus

[Muck308 55]

Ok, so who's gonna start the Latin Thread? I'm surprised I missed this story. I haven't heard of this until now. I hope that we see the rover in a museum some day, because you know what that must mean...

[Boggy1 45]

Personally; I'd like to see all the rovers and landers left exactly where they failed. Have the areas around them preserved for history.

[pckiller 1]

Originally posted by: Danlikebooks

:-(
quote>

 

Would be funny if the Rover voice was that of Sam Kinison.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Latin thread as requested.