End of an (amazing) Era - NASA Hangs Up on Spirit Rover

[Doctor_K]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110525/ap_on_sc/us_sci_mars_rovers

NASA hangs up on silent Mars rover Spirit

LOS ANGELES â€" Shortly after midnight, NASA sent one last plea to the rover Spirit, mired in a sand trap on the surface of Mars.

Please phone home.

With that, the space agency ended its efforts Wednesday to contact the workhorse robot geologist, which fell silent last year. Rather than spend time and money hanging onto faint hope, mission managers decided to turn their focus on Spirit's healthy twin Opportunity and prepare for the upcoming launch of the next Mars mega-rover.

Orbiting spacecraft will continue to passively listen for Spirit until the end of May, but the chance of a response is slim.

"There's a sadness that we have to say goodbye to Spirit," said project manager John Callas of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which runs the twin rovers. But "we have to remember the great accomplishments and the blessings that we've received of having this rover operate for so long."

NASA planned a televised farewell fete after the Memorial Day holiday that will be more of a celebration.
Upon hearing the news, Spirit fans took to Twitter to express their sadness and thanked the rover for its hard work.

The solar-powered, six-wheel rovers parachuted to opposite sides of Mars in 2004 for what was supposed to be a three-month mission. Both defied expectations by surviving beyond their warranty.

Their greatest discovery was uncovering geologic evidence that Mars, now a dusty desert, was warmer and wetter billions of years ago â€" conditions that suggest the ancient Martian environment could have been favorable for primitive life.

Spirit had always been the unluckier of the two. Weeks after landing, engineers had to nurse it back to health after it sent back garbled data.

Unlike Opportunity, which landed in a geologic gold mine, Spirit's landing site contained few signs of past water. It had to trek toward the hills to make discoveries.

Spirit scaled a mountain the height of the Statute of Liberty in 2005. It also was the first to record Martian dust devils as they formed, which NASA later made into movie clips.

Soon Spirit began to show its age. One of its front wheels stopped spinning in 2006, forcing it to drive backward and drag the lame wheel. In recent years, Spirit had temporary spells of failing to record data to its flash memory.

Spirit survived three Martian winters, but the hardy rover was no match for the latest cold.

In 2009, Spirits' wheels became bogged in a sand pit while driving backward. During attempts to get it unstuck, one of the back wheels stopped working â€" essentially turning the rover into a four-wheel drive.

NASA last year announced that Spirit will no longer rove â€" its odometer stuck at 4.8 miles. Instead, it will conduct science experiments while stationary.

With Martian winter looming, engineers struggled to put Spirit in a favorable tilt with its solar panels pointed at the sun. With no way to power its heaters to stay warm, Spirit went into hibernation.
NASA had hoped Spirit would reawaken once spring arrived. Despite daily attempts to contact it, there was no signal.

The exact cause of Spirit's demise may never be known, but it most likely froze to death.
Mission scientist Steve Ruff of Arizona State University called Spirit's time on Mars "a Cinderella story" for overcoming early struggles.

As hard as it is to accept Spirit's fate, Ruff said he was comforted that there was time to say goodbye.
"It wasn't like an overnight death. It was a slow decline," he said. "It gave me some time to adjust to the reality that the mission was probably over or about to be, so it wasn't as painful."

With Spirit out of the picture, the rover team will shift to Opportunity, which costs about $12 million annually to operate.

Opportunity is less than 3 miles from its latest destination, Endeavour crater. Barring any problems, it should reach the crater rim later this year.

Opportunity could soon get some company on the Martian surface. NASA later this year will launch the car-size Curiosity, which will land at a still-to-be-determined spot on Mars in summer 2012.

Thanks for a job well done, Spirit!

[BridgeTroll]

I have followed these rovers since they landed.  Spirits journey to the mountains and then actually climbing to the top was amazing.  Opportunity continues its trek to well, well beyond its projected life and capabilities.  The taxpayer got everything and more from these two rovers.  If you want to monitor Opportunity here is the site...

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.html

[wsansewjs]

Source: http://xkcd.com/695/

I went BAWWWWWWWWWW when I saw this comic. I feel bad for this poor robot. I want Opportunity to make a mad dash toward where Sprint is, then finally dies with Sprint. That would be the greatest love story in robot history.

-Josh

[Shwaz]

The rovers were dropped on opposite sides of the planet... considering it takes over 5 years to travel about 12 miles I don't think a reunion would be possible.

[urbanlibertarian]

[wsansewjs]

The rovers were dropped on opposite sides of the planet... considering it takes over 5 years to travel about 12 miles I don't think a reunion would be possible.

Considering the fact that the journey along the halfway of Mars has lot of solar coverage, so it is possible for Opportunity to set full speed and still be alive in 5 years if the motors in the wheels are still fairly intact.

-Josh

[JeffreyS]

When I colonize Mars I am putting Spirit in my first Museum.

[Shwaz]

The rovers were dropped on opposite sides of the planet... considering it takes over 5 years to travel about 12 miles I don't think a reunion would be possible.

Considering the fact that the journey along the halfway of Mars has lot of solar coverage, so it is possible for Opportunity to set full speed and still be alive in 5 years if the motors in the wheels are still fairly intact.

-Josh

I'm not sure NASA is going to forgo years of possible research for a 'feel good' reunion.

[wsansewjs]

The rovers were dropped on opposite sides of the planet... considering it takes over 5 years to travel about 12 miles I don't think a reunion would be possible.

Considering the fact that the journey along the halfway of Mars has lot of solar coverage, so it is possible for Opportunity to set full speed and still be alive in 5 years if the motors in the wheels are still fairly intact.

-Josh

I'm not sure NASA is going to forgo years of possible research for a 'feel good' reunion.

You know that I was not serious. You don't have to shoot it down, and blow up the party, you know?

-Josh

[Shwaz]

Honestly I was not sure.

[danem]

The rovers were dropped on opposite sides of the planet... considering it takes over 5 years to travel about 12 miles I don't think a reunion would be possible.

Considering the fact that the journey along the halfway of Mars has lot of solar coverage, so it is possible for Opportunity to set full speed and still be alive in 5 years if the motors in the wheels are still fairly intact.

-Josh

I'm not sure NASA is going to forgo years of possible research for a 'feel good' reunion.

You know that I was not serious. You don't have to shoot it down, and blow up the party, you know?

-Josh

Frankly I think the autobots will find them first and give them upgrades. 

[Ralph W]

The rovers were dropped on opposite sides of the planet... considering it takes over 5 years to travel about 12 miles I don't think a reunion would be possible.

Considering the fact that the journey along the halfway of Mars has lot of solar coverage, so it is possible for Opportunity to set full speed and still be alive in 5 years if the motors in the wheels are still fairly intact.

-Josh

I'm not sure NASA is going to forgo years of possible research for a 'feel good' reunion.

You know that I was not serious. You don't have to shoot it down, and blow up the party, you know?

-Josh

Frankly I think the autobots will find them first and give them upgrades. 

Number 5 and WALL-E to the rescue!!!

[Overstreet]

I'm sure it will join up with V'Ger (star trek) and come back looking for the Creator. 


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Star_Trek_characters_(T%E2%80%93Z)

[BridgeTroll]

http://blogs.jpl.nasa.gov/2011/05/a-heartfelt-goodbye-to-a-spirited-mars-rover/

Mars Exploration Rover Project Manager John Callas sent this letter to his team shortly after the final command was sent to the Mars rover Sprit, which operated on the surface of Mars for more than six years and made numerous scientific discoveries.


Dear Team,

Last night, just after midnight, the last recovery command was sent to Spirit. It would be an understatement to say that this was a significant moment. Since the last communication from Spirit on March 22, 2010 (Sol 2210), as she entered her fourth Martian winter, nothing has been heard from her. There is a continued silence from the Gusev site on Mars.

We must remember that we are at this point because we did what we said we would do, to wear the rovers out exploring. For Spirit, we have done that, and then some.

Spirit was designed as a 3-month mission with a kilometer of traverse capability. The rover lasted over 6 years and drove over 7.7 kilometers [4.8 miles] and returned over 124,000 images. Importantly, it is not how long the rover lasted, but how much exploration and discovery Spirit has done.

This is a rover that faced continuous challenges and had to fight for every discovery. Nothing came easy for Spirit. When she landed, she had the Sol 18 flash memory anomaly that threatened her survival. Scientifically, Mars threw a curveball. What was to be a site for lakebed sediments at Gusev, turned out to be a plain of volcanic material as far as the rover eye could see. So Spirit dashed across the plains in an attempt to reach the distant Columbia Hills, believed to be more ancient than the plains.

Exceeding her prime mission duration and odometry, Spirit scrambled up the Columbia Hills, performing Martian mountaineering, something she was never designed to do. There Spirit found her first evidence of water-altered rocks, and later, carbonates.

The environment for Spirit was always harsher than for Opportunity. The winters are deeper and darker. And Gusev is much dustier than Meridiani. Spirit had an ever-increasing accumulation of dust on her arrays. Each winter became harder than the last.

It was after her second Earth year on Mars when Spirit descended down the other side of the Columbia Hills that she experienced the first major failure of the mission, her right-front wheel failed. Spirit had to re-learn to drive with just five wheels, driving mostly backwards dragging her failed wheel. It is out of this failure that Spirit made one of the most significant discoveries of the mission. Out of lemons, Spirit made lemonade.

Each winter was hard for Spirit. But with ever-accumulating dust and the failed wheel that limited the maximum achievable slope, Spirit had no options for surviving the looming fourth winter. So we made a hard push toward some high-value science to the south. But the first path there, up onto Home Plate, was not passable. So we went for Plan B, around to the northeast of Home Plate. That too was not passable and the clock was ticking. We were left with our last choice, the longest and most risky, to head around Home Plate to the west.

It was along this path that Spirit, with her degraded 5-wheel driving, broke through an unseen hazard and became embedded in unconsolidated fine material that trapped the rover. Even this unfortunate event turned into another exciting scientific discovery. We conducted a very ambitious extrication effort, but the extrication on Mars ran out of time with the fourth winter and was further complicated by another wheel failure.

With no favorable tilt and more dust on the arrays, Spirit likely ran out of energy and succumbed to the cold temperatures during the fourth winter. There was a plausible expectation that the rover might survive the cold and wake up in the spring, but a lack of response from the rover after more than 1,200 recovery commands were sent to rouse her indicates that Spirit will sleep forever.

But let’s remember the adventure we have had. Spirit has climbed mountains, survived rover-killing dust storms, rode out three cold, dark winters and made some of the most spectacular discoveries on Mars. She has told us that Mars was once like Earth. There was water and hot springs, the conditions that could have supported life. She has given us a foundation to further explore the Red Planet and to understand ourselves and our place in the universe.

But in addition to all the scientific discoveries Spirit has given us in her long, productive rover life, she has also given us a great intangible. Mars is no longer a strange, distant and unknown place. Mars is now our neighborhood. And we all go to work on Mars every day. Thank you, Spirit. Well done, little rover.

And to all of you, well done, too.

Sincerely,
John

[wsansewjs]

http://blogs.jpl.nasa.gov/2011/05/a-heartfelt-goodbye-to-a-spirited-mars-rover/

Mars Exploration Rover Project Manager John Callas sent this letter to his team shortly after the final command was sent to the Mars rover Sprit, which operated on the surface of Mars for more than six years and made numerous scientific discoveries.


Dear Team,

Last night, just after midnight, the last recovery command was sent to Spirit. It would be an understatement to say that this was a significant moment. Since the last communication from Spirit on March 22, 2010 (Sol 2210), as she entered her fourth Martian winter, nothing has been heard from her. There is a continued silence from the Gusev site on Mars.

We must remember that we are at this point because we did what we said we would do, to wear the rovers out exploring. For Spirit, we have done that, and then some.

Spirit was designed as a 3-month mission with a kilometer of traverse capability. The rover lasted over 6 years and drove over 7.7 kilometers [4.8 miles] and returned over 124,000 images. Importantly, it is not how long the rover lasted, but how much exploration and discovery Spirit has done.

This is a rover that faced continuous challenges and had to fight for every discovery. Nothing came easy for Spirit. When she landed, she had the Sol 18 flash memory anomaly that threatened her survival. Scientifically, Mars threw a curveball. What was to be a site for lakebed sediments at Gusev, turned out to be a plain of volcanic material as far as the rover eye could see. So Spirit dashed across the plains in an attempt to reach the distant Columbia Hills, believed to be more ancient than the plains.

Exceeding her prime mission duration and odometry, Spirit scrambled up the Columbia Hills, performing Martian mountaineering, something she was never designed to do. There Spirit found her first evidence of water-altered rocks, and later, carbonates.

The environment for Spirit was always harsher than for Opportunity. The winters are deeper and darker. And Gusev is much dustier than Meridiani. Spirit had an ever-increasing accumulation of dust on her arrays. Each winter became harder than the last.

It was after her second Earth year on Mars when Spirit descended down the other side of the Columbia Hills that she experienced the first major failure of the mission, her right-front wheel failed. Spirit had to re-learn to drive with just five wheels, driving mostly backwards dragging her failed wheel. It is out of this failure that Spirit made one of the most significant discoveries of the mission. Out of lemons, Spirit made lemonade.

Each winter was hard for Spirit. But with ever-accumulating dust and the failed wheel that limited the maximum achievable slope, Spirit had no options for surviving the looming fourth winter. So we made a hard push toward some high-value science to the south. But the first path there, up onto Home Plate, was not passable. So we went for Plan B, around to the northeast of Home Plate. That too was not passable and the clock was ticking. We were left with our last choice, the longest and most risky, to head around Home Plate to the west.

It was along this path that Spirit, with her degraded 5-wheel driving, broke through an unseen hazard and became embedded in unconsolidated fine material that trapped the rover. Even this unfortunate event turned into another exciting scientific discovery. We conducted a very ambitious extrication effort, but the extrication on Mars ran out of time with the fourth winter and was further complicated by another wheel failure.

With no favorable tilt and more dust on the arrays, Spirit likely ran out of energy and succumbed to the cold temperatures during the fourth winter. There was a plausible expectation that the rover might survive the cold and wake up in the spring, but a lack of response from the rover after more than 1,200 recovery commands were sent to rouse her indicates that Spirit will sleep forever.

But let’s remember the adventure we have had. Spirit has climbed mountains, survived rover-killing dust storms, rode out three cold, dark winters and made some of the most spectacular discoveries on Mars. She has told us that Mars was once like Earth. There was water and hot springs, the conditions that could have supported life. She has given us a foundation to further explore the Red Planet and to understand ourselves and our place in the universe.

But in addition to all the scientific discoveries Spirit has given us in her long, productive rover life, she has also given us a great intangible. Mars is no longer a strange, distant and unknown place. Mars is now our neighborhood. And we all go to work on Mars every day. Thank you, Spirit. Well done, little rover.

And to all of you, well done, too.

Sincerely,
John

Aw the beauty of being a human. I am going to crawl to that corner and curl up to cry.

-Josh