Resting in Peace NASA

Despite NASA’s attempts at anthropomorphism, the Mars rovers do not talk, so Spirit was unable to utter any last words. But we did get to share its final view. Behold, our departed rover’s last Martian vista, the Columbia Hills.

This was the last panorama Spirit transmitted to Earth, on its 2,175th sol on Mars. (A sol is a Martian day, and it is 3 percent longer than an Earth day.) The rover’s final transmission came just 35 sols later, on March 22, 2010. With its wheels mired in soft sand, it was unable to turn its solar panels toward the sun to gather sufficient sun through a particularly harsh Martian winter.

NASA tried to hail the rover for more than a year before officially giving up last week. Its twin, Opportunity, is still going strong on the other side of Mars.

The rover science team will hold a planning meeting in July, and team members told Universe Today that event would serve as a sort of Irish wake for Spirit — filled with celebrations of the rover’s accomplishments during the past six years.

NASA shared this image through its Astronomy Photo of the Day. The panorama includes the Columbia Hills, each named for the astronauts who perished in the 2003 Columbia accident, and a hill nicknamed von Braun. That’s the hill with the light-colored peak near the top center of the image, explain astronomers Robert Nemiroff of Michigan Tech and Jerry Bonnell of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. The von Braun mound and a related feature named Goddard could be the result of past volcanic activity on Mars, which was also evident in the soft sulfate-rich deposits that caused Spirit's wheels to get stuck.

Spirit was driving toward von Braun when it got bogged down. Now it provides the backdrop for Spirit's final resting spot.

[NASA - APOD]

17 Comments

And in 10 years when China puts men on Mars the will recovery the rover and 50 years after that we will finally get to see its remains and 10 years later we will get to accually examine them.

car your mistake the only thing china know to do is to copy the rover when ever they will recover it. as always chineese mostly buy or steel others technology.

@Caradoc01... in 10 years it wont matter much because China will own most of the US by then anyway,lol

in ten years, China will finally have men on the MOON, not mars.

So, no transformer?

im pretty sure nasa has a lot better pics than that one... i heard of some they have of pyramids identical to the ones on earth.

@ my-name-here
and all the china fan boys will cheer and declare china won the space war...apparently.

Jedi, did Yoda tell you about the pyramids or was it Obi Wan? Luke told me it was mud huts like on tatooine. I don't trust the older Jedi's.

@Jedi
Do you really think that if a civilization complex enough to erect pyramids on mars were to have existed we wouldn't have seen other examples of their architecture and perhaps resource farms? Come on, use your brain

Where's the giant hand picking up the rover?!!
I expected a Giant hant.
In 10 years, China own America, in 15 America buy back at rock bottom prices. Just ask the Japanese about Rockefeller Center.

@Parad0x13
think of it this way; the only reason we know about dinosaurs is because we have dug deep into the earth to find the bone remains. so my theory is that life once flourished there but a extinction level event happened there that left all the life dead and buried. maybe nasa knows the truth. they are just scared to tell the people. religion would turn chaotic. all the planets in our solar system are drastically different then our own. mars is the closest thing similar to earth. more similar than even our own moon. its near the Goldilocks zone. i'm just saying that its a possibility. and most scientist would agree.

Why would NASA hide any discovery of past life on Mars? If they found it they would guarantee funding for future Mars missions, so .
Conspiracy theories are fatally flawed. The Mars pyramid one is particularly sad.

Poor rover he never saw the Jawas sneaking up behind him, im sure had he only got to that corner he would have made it to that giant (well hidden) underground city.

Seems like a lot of people here are ready to bend over for China. Good luck boys.

So NASA tried to hail the probe for more than a year. Does that mean they waited for Summer to arrive but still couldn't get the rover to respond? I don't know where the Rover is exactly, but it seems to me that if it was running fine until getting stuck in the sand, then it just barely doesn't have enough light. Seems the Summer months would likely give enough extra light to power it up again and at least get a picture. That is, unless there is an electronics problem like a bad battery. But then that likely has nothing to do with being stuck in the sand.

Once Opportunity finishes its mission, they could turn it around and navigate a intercept path to Spirit and possibly rotate restore it. Am not sure exactly what went wrong but it does like its batteries went flat and thus shutdown unable to boot up again so perhaps Opportunity could lend a hand one day.

Risky but would be cool if it worked. They just need to make sure Opportunity is more prepared when entering the area (time wise and battery wise).

multiple notes
do u really think nasa has to publically announce something to get funding from teh government? honestly? be realistic here.
and even today we dont know how the pyramids and such were formed we only thoerize and think we know how

We're on the brink of so many jumps in technology its impossible to conceive what will come in our lifetimes.



June 2013: American Energy Independence

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