January 30, 2010
Goodbye Spirit. Go Opportunity!
Just recently, NASA made their official announcement to leave NASA's Mars Rover Spirit, after painstakingly doing everything to pull her up from the sand.
Remember Spirit? no, not the horse, but NASA's mobile Mars Rover which after six long years of unprecedented exploration of the Red Planet, could no longer perform its primary exploration task.
Spirit is not dead though, but as several attempts of getting her out were unsuccessful, NASA decided to transform her into a stationary science platform.
According to Doug McCuistion, director of the Mars Exploration Program at NASA Headquarters in Washington, "Spirit was driving south beside the western edge of a low plateau called Home Plate, its wheels broke through a crusty surface and churned into soft sand hidden underneath. "
On the lighter side, Mars Rover Opportunity is still very alive and kicking. Official NASA reports said that Opportunity has been traversing south toward a young impact crater, called "Concepcion." The crater is estimated to be about 1,000 years old, the youngest crater to be explored on Mars.
Click here to read more updates about Spirit and Opportunity.
Written by: John
Filed Under: Robotics, Robotics Sensors, Servos
Tags: Attempts, Crusty Surface, Impact Crater, Mars Exploration Program, Mars Rover Opportunity, Mars Rover Spirit, Mccuistion, Nasa, Nasa Headquarters, Nasa Reports, Plateau, Red Planet, Science Platform, Soft Sand, Spirit And Opportunity, Unprecedented Exploration, Western Edge, Wheels
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pululu81
dhaval
vineeth
Rhonda
Smith
vineeth
January 30, 2010 at 3:45 am
It is a very good article and very interesting to read.
dhaval
January 30, 2010 at 4:06 am
This is a nice article.I like this article.This article is give us good information about NASA and also spirit.Thank you for this article.
oyeitsneeraj
January 30, 2010 at 4:08 am
its really great that expedition robot have finally reached even out of earth ,and where ,they ahve reached to mars…the next earth ….where humans will very soon going to live…
But i beleive there’s always been a problem with expedition robots like spirit and opportunity that……they walk on wheels,if they would been travelling on legs……… they would have travelled more…
so i will suggest the NASA scientists that start working on legged robots,they will be more effective than these early wheeled robots…..because as nature’s million years evolution says ,every creature in this world has legs,not wheels.
by the way,its great to listen that robots are there and are sending valuable information to us.
Pradeep
January 30, 2010 at 4:08 am
It is an awesome article. Thank you..