Spirit Stuck For Good, To Become Stationary Science Platform
Writing by Evan Ackerman on Friday, 29 of January , 2010 at 2:22 am
Spirit, you were a good rover. You were a great rover. You did your job, and more. There was never any doubt as to whether you’d be staying on Mars, but nearly two thousand days of operation instead of ninety? Incredible.
Spirit isn’t done yet, but unfortunately, she might be getting close… NASA has officially given up attempts to extricate the rover from deep sand and has declared her a stationary science platform. In the next few weeks, small movements will be made to try and orient Spirit’s solar panels more favorably toward the south, in the hopes that they will be able to generate enough power to keep Spirit alive through the Martian winter.
If Spirit makes it, she could continue to do valuable scientific work for months or even years:
“There’s a class of science we can do only with a stationary vehicle that we had put off during the years of driving,” said Steve Squyres, a researcher at Cornell University and principal investigator for Spirit and Opportunity. “Degraded mobility does not mean the mission ends abruptly. Instead, it lets us transition to stationary science.”
One stationary experiment Spirit has begun studies tiny wobbles in the rotation of Mars to gain insight about the planet’s core. This requires months of radio-tracking the motion of a point on the surface of Mars to calculate long-term motion with an accuracy of a few inches.
“If the final scientific feather in Spirit’s cap is determining whether the core of Mars is liquid or solid, that would be wonderful — it’s so different from the other knowledge we’ve gained from Spirit,” said Squyres.
Tools on Spirit’s robotic arm can study variations in the composition of nearby soil, which has been affected by water. Stationary science also includes watching how wind moves soil particles and monitoring the Martian atmosphere.
We’re all pulling you ya back here on Earth, Spirit.
Meanwhile, Opportunity is doing just fine, heading towards a very young crater called Concepcion at a blistering pace of about 200 feet per day. Stuck or not, these little rovers never cease to amaze me.
[ Press Release ]
Comic VIA [ xkcd ]
Comments (6)
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Comment by Zool
Made Friday, 29 of January , 2010 at 8:55 am
That’s sad news. I think they could still get it out of the dust, but I wonder if they are worried about it getting into more trouble.
That sad lonely robot cartoon isn’t making the news any happier! :)
Although I would expect that cartoon to have a happy ending by about day 20000 to day 40000. By that time, hopefully we will have a lot more robots on Mars that can go and help Spirit or build a museum around it!, ready for when humans want to visit it, to remember and see first hand, previous generations efforts to get into space. So I expect Spirit and all these early robots will probably have a very long future ahead of them, being once again the centre of attention for so many future generations. :)
Comment by FelipeChoque
Made Friday, 29 of January , 2010 at 10:09 am
indeed, a sad comic xD
and i totally agree with zool.
Comment by Stefan Marti
Made Friday, 29 of January , 2010 at 3:20 pm
Sad comic, very nice comment by Zool. We should start an organization to do fund raising that will build the museum around Spirit as soon as we can!
Comment by Joey1058
Made Saturday, 30 of January , 2010 at 1:28 pm
You hadda go and bring in the human factor. You just hadda. I’m gonna go blow my nose and wipe my eyes now. *sniffle*
Comment by JiD
Made Monday, 15 of February , 2010 at 5:51 am
Well… I forget the name of the movie but when it comes down to it. Once we send people to Mars, and a storm destroys the HAB module, I’ll bet they’ll look for Spirit to use her old radio to get in touch with earth… Lol..
If not that, That thing should be come a hero in the scientific community !!
90 Days life expectancy and what… Its still powered and going !!
God I wish they made cars like that!! Damn Neon… lol
Comment by Carter Ward
Made Tuesday, 20 of July , 2010 at 11:02 am
Fund Raising is always needed to support existing and future projects.’”‘
