Mars Lives.

[BridgeTroll]

Its twin... Spirit... is stuck in the sand and has fallen into "deep sleep" during the martian winter.  It is unkown if it will be able to reawaken.

[JeffreyS]

Never thought I would be cheering on a machine like a sports fan.  Go little machine, go!

I know how you feel.

[BridgeTroll]

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/newsroom/pressreleases/20110104a.html

January 04, 2011

Rover Will Spend 7th Birthday at Stadium-Size Crater 

   
The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter captured a Dec. 31, 2010, view of the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity on the southwestern rim of a football-field-size crater called "Santa Maria."

Opportunity arrived at the western edge of Santa Maria crater in mid-December and will spend about two months investigating rocks there. That investigation will take Opportunity into the beginning of its eighth year on Mars. Opportunity landed in the Meridiani Planum region of Mars on Jan. 25, 2004, Universal Time (Jan. 24, Pacific Time) for a mission originally planned to last for three months.

[BridgeTroll]

Spirit is likely dead...

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/newsroom/pressreleases/20110318a.html

March 18, 2011

Alternatives Have Begun in Bid to Hear from Spirit 

PASADENA, Calif. -- Hopes for reviving NASA's Spirit Mars rover dimmed further with passage last week of the point at which the rover's locale received its maximum sunshine for the Martian year.

The rover team has tried to contact Spirit for months with strategies based on the possibility that increasing energy availability might wake the rover from hibernation. The team has now switched to communication strategies designed to address more than one problem on the rover. If no signal is heard from Spirit in the next month or two, the team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., will shift to single-rover operations, continuing to operate Spirit's active twin, Opportunity.

"The commands we are sending starting this week should work in a multiple-fault scenario where Spirit's main transmitter is no longer working and the mission clock has lost track of time or drifted significantly," said JPL's John Callas, project manager for Spirit and Opportunity.

Spirit landed on Mars Jan. 4, 2004 Universal Time (Jan. 3, Pacific Time) for a mission designed to last for three months. After accomplishing its prime-mission goals, Spirit worked for more than five years in bonus-time extended missions.

Spirit has not communicated since March 22, 2010. Power output from its solar array had been waning prior to that, and the rover had been expected to go into a low-power hibernation mode. With drive motors on two of its six wheels no longer working, Spirit had been unable in preceding months to maneuver much in its sand-trap location. The rover could not get to a favorable tilt for its solar panels as Martian winter approached.

During the Martian winter with most heaters turned off, Spirit experienced colder internal temperatures than in any of its three previous winters on Mars. The cold could have damaged any of several electronic components that, if damaged, would prevent reestablishing communication with Spirit.

However, attempts to regain contact have continued for more than eight months in the possibility that the seasonal increase in solar energy available at Spirit's location would revive the rover. NASA's Deep Space Network of antennas in California, Spain and Australia has been listening for Spirit daily. The rover team has also sent commands to elicit a response from the rover even if the rover has lost track of time, or if its receiver has degraded in frequency response.

The available solar energy at Spirit's site was estimated to peak on March 10. Revised commanding began March 15, including instructions for the rover to be receptive over UHF relay to hailing from the Mars orbiters for extended periods of time and to use a backup transmitter on the rover.

Spirit and Opportunity both have made important discoveries about wet environments on ancient Mars that may have been favorable for supporting microbial life. Opportunity landed three weeks after Spirit.

JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Exploration Rover project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington.

[Dog Walker]

I hope they send it a final message that says, "Well done thy good and faithful servant."

[Jason]

Too bad the other probe can't come to the rescue. 

I can't help but think of "Batteries Not Included"...

[BridgeTroll]

Not a bad life span for a mission that was designed to last 3 months.

[wsansewjs]

Haha speaking of those incredible rovers, "My other cars are on Mars!" was spoken by Dave Lavery, Program Executive for Solar System Exploration at NASA Headquarters].

I have personally met him along with my robotic's team presenting a homage to him and his team for the amazing rovers, Spirit and Opportunity. The homage is the poster that contains an alien with its squagee and cleaning solution spray as an irony to the day that Spirit came back alive luckily in its first Martian winter. It contains signatures of every team members. This was presented at the FIRST Robotics Championship 2007 in Atlanta, GA.



Wikipedia on Dave Lavery: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Lavery

-Josh

[BridgeTroll]

Very cool!  I have been a fan of this project since it's inception.  There was a program before the probes were launched where you could have your name burned into a CD and placed on each rover.  I and my family are on Mars... at least as a data bit!

[wsansewjs]

Very cool!  I have been a fan of this project since it's inception.  There was a program before the probes were launched where you could have your name burned into a CD and placed on each rover.  I and my family are on Mars... at least as a data bit!

That would be the first Mars rover, The Pathfinder.

-Josh

[BridgeTroll]

Nope... I am on both Spirit and Opportunity... I have the certificates... somewhere...

[wsansewjs]

Nope... I am on both Spirit and Opportunity... I have the certificates... somewhere...

Opps I mean the Pathfinder was the first one to do start it, then Spirit and Opportunity did afterward.

I think Opportunity should make a mad dash to where Spirit is and give a kiss to Spirit before they die. That would be a wonderful ending.

-Josh

[JeffreyS]

Good Job Spirit.

[Doctor_K]

Not too shabby a job for a rover that was supposed to make it 90 days.

Who says NASA can't do anything right?

[BridgeTroll]

Below is a pic detailing Opportunities path since landing.  It begins at Eagle crater in the upper left.  Total mileage to date is nearly 19 miles.

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/press/opportunity/20110607a/PIA14135_Eagle-to-Endeavour_br.jpg

Eagle to Endeavour: Opportunity's Path, Sol 2609

The yellow line on this map shows where NASA's Mars Rover Opportunity has driven from the place where it landed in January 2004 -- inside Eagle crater, at the upper left end of the track -- to a point about 2.2 miles (3.5 kilometers) away from reaching the rim of Endeavour crater.

Endeavour crater has been the rover team's destination for Opportunity since the rover finished exploring Victoria crater in August 2008. Endeavour, with a diameter of about 14 miles (22 kilometers), offers access to older geological deposits than any Opportunity has seen before.

In honor of Opportunity's rover twin, the team has chosen "Spirit Point" as the informal name for the site on Endeavour's rim targeted for Opportunity's arrival at Endeavour. Spirit, which worked halfway around Mars from Opportunity for more than six years, ended communication in March 2010.

Opportunity reached the point in its traverse indicated on this map on the 2,609th Martian day, or sol, of the rover's work on Mars (May 27, 2011). By that sol, Opportunity had driven a total of 18.58 miles (29.9 kilometers). By Sol 2619 (June 6, 2011) it had driven an additional 0.19 mile (0.32 kilometer).

The western rim of Endeavour has a series of ridges. Spirit Point is the southern edge of a ridge called "Cape York." Farther south on the rim, a ridge called "Cape Tribulation" offers exposures identified from orbit as clay minerals.