Mars Rover Down? Spirit Stays Silent

astroengine writes "One year after NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit stopped communicating with Earth, mission managers have announced that they will give the stranded rover one more month to send a signal before they scale back the search. But things aren't looking good. In the words of JPL-based Mars rover driver Scott Maxwell, 'Spirit was so close to us, just a year ago. Snap your fingers, and she's a hundred million miles distant and we can't even prove she's alive.'"

Comments

Re:Good run

[Sonny Yatsen]

That's not luck, that's great engineering and great piloting on the part of NASA.

Re:A pity it had to be Spirit , not Opportunity

[SharpFang]

We pity malfunctioning Spirit, pity it's not Opportunity. NO.

Goddamnit, Spirit was a row of failures from day one, an epic struggle but a struggle nevertheless.

Meanwhile, Opportunity analyzed some nearby craters, climbed a hill, found one HUGE crater and began moving there.

It will reach it around 2015.

Yep, NASA made plans of some decade long trip for it, a couple years ago. Not "will it respond in next month?" style hope, but "Will it last 10 years more?" hope. Totally awesome and incredible.

Damn you, nothing Spirit was close to compares to the crater Opportunity tries to reach.