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Mars Rover Spirit May Never Wake From Deep Sleep
astroengine writes "After repeated calls from NASA to wake up Mars Exploration Rover Spirit from its low-energy hibernation mode, mission control is beginning to realize the ill-fated robot may never wake up again. After getting stuck in a sand trap in Gusev Crater and then switching into hibernation in March, rover operators were hopeful that the beached Spirit might yet be saved. Alas, this is looking more and more unlikely. In a statement, NASA said: 'Based on models of Mars' weather and its effect on available power, mission managers believe that if Spirit responds, it most likely will be in the next few months. However, there is a very distinct possibility Spirit may never respond.'"
Related xkcd strip, in case the headline wasn't anthropomorphic enough for you.
Those were the longest 90 days ever. Good job to everyone all around, although I imagine it will be a bit weird for the rover team to all of a sudden not have a rover to take care of...
He can go reboot it, right? I know it is the weekend, but it's obviously part of his job duties.
http://www.theonion.com/articles/mars-rover-beginning-to-hate-mars,2072/
Orwell was an optimist.
I'm gonna sit back and watch a bunch of male geeks get all teary eyed about some robot.
"Just my allergies, I hate summer".
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
Sad that people are taking so little notice. The two rovers may be the greatest achievement of mankind to date. Lasting this long is beyond heroic. They may be robots but they have both shown a stubborn determination that is impressive for man or machine. He'll be missed and I think we all wish his brother well. They'll be decades going over the data generated but the two lonely robots, one now apparently sleeping for all time.
Everyone knew that this moment was going to come, so I bet the people working with the robot will be sad, but have planned something new in their lives. Next year for example, NASA is going to launch another Mars rover.
> "After repeated calls from NASA to wake up Mars Exploration Rover
> Spirit from its low-energy hibernation mode, mission control is beginning
> to realize the ill-fated robot may never wake up again.
I would wish to have such ill-fate as exceeding my predicted lifetime by a factor of 10x and accomplishing 20x more than believed possible within that lifetime.
sPh
The rovers weren't made to last forever! They have far-exceeded their design life, and have given us a lot of data to help decide our next step in the conquest of Mars.
I think we can raise a glass and toast the team for a job well done. If only all NASA missions were this successful, we'd have nothing to complain about!
I need trepanation like I need a hole in the head.
>> "Related xkcd strip, in case the headline wasn't anthropomorphic enough for you."
:-(
Poor baby....
I feel sad for the poor little thing. I hope one day someone can go rescue all these poor little waifs that we abandon on alien worlds..
I don't think "ill-fated" is a term you would use for something that performed far beyond expectations.
Can't think of a better way to go...
R.I.P.
For justice, we must go to Don Corleone
Use Opportunity to jostle Spirit toward the sun again.
Thanks, I'll be consulting for NASA all week!
I was involved with this project when the rovers where still being built. When you build or are otherwise involved in something you really believe in like this you can't help anthropomorphizing them.
To most its just a machine, a worthless hunk of metal, but to those who put there hearts and souls into this program those rovers are almost as precious as children. Its part of human nature to imbue objects with an identity, a soul, just look at how people treat cars, plans, boats, etc..
Sprite and Opportunity carried more than just a bunch of electronics to Mars, they carried the dreams and hopes of all those who choose join it in its journey.
To those, like myself, who consider the rovers to be more than the sum of their parts it will be a very sad day when Sprite is officially listed as dead. And to those who would laugh at us because they can't care for anything beyond themselves or limit their love to only humans, I pity you.
Spirit isn't stuck in the sand. It's hung up on a rock. The wheels cannot get any traction.
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
Sounds like a plot for a Disney|PIXAR movie. WALL-E meets Sleeping Beauty?
As a result, the heaters were able to keep internal temperatures above minus 40 degrees Celsius (which is also minus 40 degrees on the Fahrenheit scale).
Have they tried overclocking?
Have you tried turning it off and on again?
The game.
After getting stuck in a sand trap in Gusev Crater and then switching into hibernation in March, rover operators were hopeful that the beached Spirit might yet be saved. Alas, this is looking more and more unlikely.
Grr, I hate sand traps. Whose bright idea was it to put one on Mars?
Did they try whacking at it with a sand wedge?
Must run an older linux kernel...I could never get suspend/hibernate to work either.....
Until the hansom rover prince comes by and awakens it with a kiss ....
http://xkcd.co... oh wait.
Someone re-captioned it, and Randall Munroe is hosting it.
I think they both work.
If I had to rate achievements in space exploration, the greatest would still be putting men on the moon.
First, because it was done in less than ten years after the project started.
Second, because it has never been repeated since 1972.
Third, because technology was more primitive. No carbon fiber and many other structural materials developed since then, very primitive computers.
And last but not least, because it came before the Mars landings. The technology developed for landing on the Moon was fundamental for a lot of that used for landing on Mars,
The Cold War was the main incentive to invest in the Space Race of the 1960s, so progress has slowed down almost to a crawl since then, but there's no denying that going to the Moon was an achievement rivaled by very few others in the history of technology.
What was their main reasoning for adopting wheels over tracks, given they knew about the terrain in advance?
Morphos=shape or form. Spirit isn't shaped or formed like a human.
Yeah, I know. "Anthropomorphic" has been taken to mean things beyond merely human form, to include behaviors and personalities. But "Anthropopathic" is a perfectly good word that talks about human-like feelings and works quite well almost every place the other one is used.
No worries. It still doesn't work.
Do you suppose he will come around from whatever side of the planet he is on and do his duty?
http://xkcd.com/695/
best xkcd ever!!
In retrospect, the Mars rover was build well outside design requirements, making it probably heavier and more expensive than absolutely necessary. Thus it was a design failure.
On the other hand, the 3 month mission length was decided by politicians so the engineers did the good thing, because if it is already there and working the budget for a longer mission will come anyway (for a few million we can extend a billion dollar mission for a few months sounds really good then).
"Anthropopathic" is a splendid word (and fun to say - thank you), however "Anthropomorphic" is not limited to meaning physical shape. Morpheus was the god of dreams. Anthropopathic is subset of Anthropomorphic, and while 'pathic' is 'feelings', it's particularly the feeling subset of 'suffering'.
So much for that wind generated heating system.
The mind conceives, the body achieves, the spirit manifests.
We never particularly expected to hear from Spirit before this coming October +/- 1 month, making the suggestion that we're "beginning to realize she might never wake up again" more than a little misleading. According to our best models, the energy levels on Mars are just barely reaching the point where Spirit might wake up for even a few minutes a day, and hearing anything from her at this point would be a great stroke of luck. Have patience. She's there.
I understand that NASA is trying to manage expectations, but their way of doing it is bad management that needlessly demoralizes the team. My own personal expectation is that we damn well will hear from Spirit, and after a certain recovery period she'll be moving on Mars again.
``Life results from the non-random survival of randomly varying replicators.'' -- Richard Dawkins
"We believe in Spirit"
"We believe in Spirit"
....we'll actually send someone there, and knowing how humanity can be, whoever it is will wipe the dust off the solar panels (or attach an pocket atomic battery), and with the help of a hydraulic jack, the rover will resume its mission.
We will know other things by then, but we'll still be glad for the messages it sends.
Until then, a round of applause - and heartfelt gratitude - to the team that made a 90 day mission feel like a lifetime.
I wonder, when Terminator's fuel cell fully functional...
Sounds like you just volunteered.
Enjoy your new space toys, one-way-ticket man.
Man, it's so simple, I should get hired at Nasa.
First, we make a rocket that can get to the moon. it doesn't have to come back, just get there. it doesn't need to land. (it can crash when it's done, so maybe make it biodegradeable).
Have it aim to fly over the robot, then it drops a big ass magnet out of it's side, picks the robot up as it goes by, then drops it down somewhere else.
Hopefully the magnet will have the affect of rebooting the robot's system, and not wiping out any data.
There ya go.
My other idea was to tell whomever about all the pirated music & movies that robot was carrying on it, then I realized they'd just use lobbiest to get the politicains to go up and get it.
Be seeing you...
Well, sorta. Pathos also includes passions, so it's about strong feelings, not just those involved in suffering.
And I will correct myself, it's not morphos, it's morphe (I had the wrong declension and gender).
That was a pleasant pedant spat -- not quite nasty enough to be a fight. HAND.
Can't think of a better way to go...
I'd rather go while "sleeping" with someone hot. I just hope that "broken wheel" is NASA code for a rover "getting it on" with some hot hunk of metal.
...having been saved from its ill-fate by Martians yet to be revealed to us. They repair Spirit, give it a conscience and telekinetic powers then return it to earth. Back on Earth, it quickly recognizes the frivolities of human culture and as a reaction chooses to create tis own religion. He gains a great following of those that choose to be tonken with his ideals and accept a new gender - temuline. But the masses that loved and admired tim suddenly turn against tim. The falls and is martyred and tis beloved consume trace amounts of tis titanium and aluminum to become one with tim.
Ctrl + Alt + Del
Come on..... Don't NASA engineers know how to reboot after a system hang?!
Knowing Google's lust for data collection, the Soviet Union is still alive and well inside the psyche of Sergey Brin....
The flesh was willing, but the Spirit was weak.
Sorry, but to imply that they might just now have thought of the concept of "not enough energy, rover dead" is laughable.
Beginning to accept, yes. Beginning to realize, no.
there are 2 no...could they not plan a rescue mission, if it does not compromise the other rover, to go and help the first one out of the sand trap, and also maybe give it a shake to dust off the solar panels?
She is not dead, she fhtagn. And she will awake when the stars are right (just one star is enough).
Inspired by the XKCD strip: http://eran.geek.co.il/wp/archives/1975
No one ever said being a Heretic was easy.
Let us meet again in "Less Interesting Times"