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Mars Rover Spirit May Never Wake From Deep Sleep

Posted by Soulskill on from the borrow-my-alarm-clock,-that'll-do-it dept.

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.

17 of 155 comments (clear)

  1. Well, just send the sys admin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    He can go reboot it, right? I know it is the weekend, but it's obviously part of his job duties.

    1. Re:Well, just send the sys admin by KiloByte · · Score: 3, Funny

      Seriously, why don't we just send a guy to give the rover a push?

      The technology is there, that we don't send a man there is just a matter of politics.

      And, one of better plans I heard was to send a crew there with an one- way ticket (initially). For any multi-stage flights, the amount of gear, fuel and complexity rises expotentially with the number of stages: every stage has to include the oomph needed to carry not only the payload, but also all the gear+consumables for subsequent stages. Cutting that number by half would reduce the costs and difficulty to a manageable level -- and, you can use the freed space to include a lot of survival and scientific gear and still end up at a tiny fraction of budget needed.

      The crew would sit there, play with their toys, and when they get bored, use 5000 years old technology to build things from local materials. A while later, there would be a next crew (or even an unmanned craft) with no survival gear but just the engines needed for takeoff and return -- it may be possible to produce fuel locally -- perhaps using nuclear power to produce energy for the reactions needed if it can't be gathered in an easy way. The second crew would either stay on Mars or go back together with the first one.

      --
      The creatures outside looked from Alt-Right to Antifa; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
  2. Or the onion article by Wolvenhaven · · Score: 5, Funny

    http://www.theonion.com/articles/mars-rover-beginning-to-hate-mars,2072/

    --
    Orwell was an optimist.
  3. This ought to be good. by ColdWetDog · · Score: 2, Funny

    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!
  4. Duh... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Use Opportunity to jostle Spirit toward the sun again.

    Thanks, I'll be consulting for NASA all week!

  5. Re:Human nature by _Stryker · · Score: 2, Funny

    Ummm, isn't it named Spirit, not Sprite? Are you sure you were really involved with this project when they were "still being built"?

  6. Disney|PIXAR by MadGeek007 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Sounds like a plot for a Disney|PIXAR movie. WALL-E meets Sleeping Beauty?

  7. Forgive me by thatskinnyguy · · Score: 2, Funny

    Have you tried turning it off and on again?

    --
    The game.
    1. Re:Forgive me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      Yah, but now there are 100's of nudes of spirit on the net. Stupid Dell Support.

  8. Re:RIP little buddy by clarkkent09 · · Score: 3, Funny

    The two rovers may be the greatest achievement of mankind to date.

    I vote for curry as number one, that's easy. Then it gets a bit harder but I suspect there is a looong list of mankind's achievements ahead of a robot stuck on Mars.

    --
    Negative moral value of force outweighs the positive value of good intentions.
  9. Re:Human nature by badboy_tw2002 · · Score: 2, Funny

    Apparently you weren't there when they renamed the rovers after the soft-drink advertising fell through. Someone managed to save costs though and only redo the lettering just a little bit.

  10. Re:It was inevitable. by nschubach · · Score: 3, Funny

    Those Martians never stood a chance.

    --
    Every time I start to have faith in humanity, I ruin it by driving to work between 7 and 8 am.
  11. Re:Human nature by PinkyGigglebrain · · Score: 3, Funny

    Whoops! My bad.

    I am going to get (deservedly) ripped for this aren't I?

    I plead diminished capacity, I was only on my first cup of coffee.

  12. Oblig. xkcd by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    http://xkcd.co... oh wait.

  13. the re-write by ChipMonk · · Score: 4, Funny

    Someone re-captioned it, and Randall Munroe is hosting it.

    I think they both work.

  14. Re:On the bright side... by eln · · Score: 4, Funny

    As it turns out, declining the Mars endorsement on their AAA coverage was a fatal mistake.

  15. Re:Die in my sleep by KlaymenDK · · Score: 2, Funny

    When I die, I'd like to go peacefully in my sleep, like grandpa.

    Not screaming and panicking, like his passengers. (badum-tish)

    --
    "Good news, everyone!"