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Spirit Rover Begins Making Night Sky Observations

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the rover-that-keeps-on-giving dept.

Nancy Atkinson writes "Even though the Spirit rover is stuck in loose soil on Mars, she has an overabundance of electrical power due to a wind event that cleaned off her solar panels. While MER scientists and engineers are having the rover take pictures of her surroundings in an effort to figure a way to get her dislodged, there also is enough power (since the rover isn't moving anywhere) to do something extra: keep the rover 'awake' at night and run her heaters so she can take images of the night sky on Mars. 'Certainly, a month or more ago, no one was considering astronomy with the rovers,' said Mark Lemmon, planetary scientist at Texas A&M University and member of the rover team. 'We thought that was done. With the dust cleanings, though, everyone thinks it is better to use the new found energy on night time science than to just burn it with heaters.'"

10 of 157 comments (clear)

  1. Girl rover by oneirophrenos · · Score: 3, Funny

    Who decided she was female?

    1. Re:Girl rover by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 4, Funny

      Try: "The heteronormative, phallocentric discourse of the hegemonic western technocratic class."

      For extra credit, be sure to emphasize that said class's "dehumanizing ideology of technologically mediated science-as-dominance oppresses the many equally valid Traditional Ways of Knowing embraced by native martian culture".

    2. Re:Girl rover by RenderSeven · · Score: 4, Funny

      If it was a guy, clearly it wouldnt have gotten stuck. Would've had bigger mud tires and a hemi ...

    3. Re:Girl rover by saider · · Score: 3, Funny

      And naked lady mud flaps.

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      Remember, You are unique...just like everyone else.
    4. Re:Girl rover by BrightSpark · · Score: 3, Funny

      Because girls aren't easily turned on by nerdy scientists!

  2. Re:You posted from "Angstrom Medal" Winner... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Just so we have a record of it, you're saying that's NOT a fossilized crinoid on Mars, right?

  3. Re:Amazing Engineering by sigmoid_balance · · Score: 3, Funny

    I wonder how long are the martians going to keep feeding us this data. They should be tired of this joke by now.

  4. Re:Wind Event? by guruevi · · Score: 3, Funny

    Next time I'm under the covers with my wife and she asks where that smells come from, I can now say: a wind event.

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  5. Re:how is it possible by Hognoxious · · Score: 4, Funny

    I doubt he read what you wrote. I didn't.

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  6. Re:Wind Event? by weirdcrashingnoises · · Score: 3, Funny

    Less well scientifically endowed individuals might think that wind = farting.

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