Mars Rover "Spirit" In Danger

Riding with Robots writes "Just days after announcing that the Mars Phoenix Lander has met its icy demise, NASA reports that a dust storm has left the rover Spirit on the edge of power failure. During one recent Martian day, the robotic geologist's solar array produced only 89 watt hours of energy, the lowest output by either rover in their nearly five years on Mars. Mission managers are taking steps to protect the hardy, battle-worn spacecraft, but the agency describes Spirit's status as 'vulnerable.'"

Comments

It's been a good run

[danaris]

It would be very sad to see Spirit run out of power, but honestly, both the rovers have performed so far beyond their original expectations, it's astounding. I seem to recall they were originally meant for something like a two-month mission...four years ago.

So if we do lose Spirit soon, for my part, I think we can be satisfied with what it's already accomplished.

Dan Aris

Mission Accomplished

[Java Commando]

Indeed, Spirit can legitimately unfurl a "Mission Accomplished" banner, now.

And have no regrets about it.

Pedantic griping on the units

[compact_support]

During a day, solar panels don't produce any watts of energy. Watts are a compound unit, specifically joules per second. Joules are a measurement of energy, and what would be produced in a a time period. Watts represent the instantaneous rate of power generation.