Ok, yes, maybe I'm being a little overdramatic, but dammit, I loved that machine!
It was announced today that the last command will be sent to the Mars rover Spirit tonight, and barring any response (HIGHLY unlikely at this point), they will stop listening for a response on May 31.
Basic story: Rover was toodling around Mars, being all awesome, got stuck in a hidden dust trap. They tried to drive it out, it got stuck worse. They tried to turn it so the solar panels could at least get enough energy to keep its heaters running through the winter, no dice. They kept "listening" for it, no response. What probably happened is that the electronics broke from the cold of Martian winter, and Spirit "died" sometime in 2010.
Yes, it's a machine. It's a machine I never touched or set eyes on. But I loved that machine, and it's dead, and I'm sad about it.
So of course, I made a tribute video... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5AkBUmPrQXY
It was announced today that the last command will be sent to the Mars rover Spirit tonight, and barring any response (HIGHLY unlikely at this point), they will stop listening for a response on May 31.
Basic story: Rover was toodling around Mars, being all awesome, got stuck in a hidden dust trap. They tried to drive it out, it got stuck worse. They tried to turn it so the solar panels could at least get enough energy to keep its heaters running through the winter, no dice. They kept "listening" for it, no response. What probably happened is that the electronics broke from the cold of Martian winter, and Spirit "died" sometime in 2010.
Yes, it's a machine. It's a machine I never touched or set eyes on. But I loved that machine, and it's dead, and I'm sad about it.
So of course, I made a tribute video... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5AkBUmPrQXY
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