http://www.universetoday.com/2008/03/24/spirit-rover-is-switched-off-to-save-nasa-money/ I have been very busy lately and haven't had time to post much, but I heard this early this morning and my heart sort of sank.
I'm just gonna mirror a lot of the comments on that article and say: Seriously, 4 million dollars is why this is happening? Turn off the engines of an Aircraft carrier for 20 minutes and send the money to Nasa.
I have the sadness. The way the government wastes money you would think they could find $4 million under the sofa somewhere.
I was under the impression that spirit was going to go into hibernation during the martian winter anyway? or at least reduce it's activity a lot. Mind you I agree that it's dumb to stop investing in probes that are still working and collecting new data.
That's ridiculously stupid. Billions into American defense and they have to shut down a highly productive scientific robot? Good lord.
Well, obviously. It was originally supposed to last 90 days, but it's been going on for years, so naturally it has to be shut down. (Wait, are we talking about war or the Mars rover here?)
Good to hear they aren't shutting it down. On the other hand, don't these rovers have to stay within a certain range of their bases? If they can only go so far out, wouldn't they run out of stuff to look at and do eventually anyway?
Awesome news! NASA should cut advertising deals with Apple, Sprint, and Nasonex for all future space vehicles to increase revenue. Aliens might need stupidly thin laptops or allergy relief....
I would rather them cancel a shuttle mission than turn off one of the Rovers anyway. Why waste money to fly around the earth like we've been doing for the past 30 years when we have new technology that is actually discovering great new things.
When I first saw the thread, I thought that Spirit finally died. Then I clicked the first link and I became very upset - to think that they would consider shutting down one of these miraculous rovers! And then I clicked the second link and I was relieved to hear that Spirit will go on. I know they're not sentient, but I can't be the only one who thinks of those rovers as beings. I know it's personification...but then, we do that with ships and cars, and they can't do half the stuff that Spirit and Opportunity can do. I wouldn't discount shuttle missions, though. They do important work up there, including the construction of the International Space Station, maintenance of the Hubble space telescope, launching satellites and probes, etc. And yeah, fiscal priorities in the Untied States of Denial are completely out of whack, but that's not news.
No. They are autonomous from their delivery vehicles. The rovers communicate directly with a satellite in Mars orbit, IIRC.
Because we're still learning stuff from orbit missions, otherwise we wouldn't be doing them (or...the world is using the US as a pack mule to get that international space station running so OTHER countries can get up there and play catch up...CONSPIRACY! I bet they're all crab-people in disguise!_. : Seriously though, good thing that Spirit's moving on, I remember being crushed as a kid when Sojourner died. DN
When I read the first post, I was all: " ", then I read down and was all: ..."Yay!" EDIT: Just like Spekkio.
Good to hear that Spirit isn't being shut down. I find it amazing that we have robots across the solar system doing science. To have that cut short for a tiny bit of money would be ludicrous.
Those little things are amazing. If/ when they do go off line I hope it's because they brake or die on there own. Turing them off just seems wrong.
