* Astronomy

Blobrana · L

RE: Mars Exploration Rover Spirit

Blobrana · L

Last communication from the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit on March 22, 2010

Blobrana · L

Spirit Lander and Bonneville Crater in Colour

HiRISE has never before imaged the actual lander for the Spirit rover in colour, on the west side of Bonneville Crater. The lander is still bright, but with a reddish colour, probably due to a dust cover.
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Tributes to Terrorism Victims are on Mars

In September 2001, Honeybee Robotics employees in lower Manhattan were building a pair of tools for grinding weathered rinds off rocks on Mars, so that scientific instruments on NASA's Mars Exploration Rovers Spirit and Opportunity could inspect the rocks' interiors.
That month's attack on the twin towers of the World Trade Centre, less than a mile away, shook the lives of the employees and millions of others.
Work on the rock abrasion tools needed to meet a tight schedule to allow thorough testing before launch dates governed by the motions of the planets. The people building the tools could not spend much time helping at shelters or in other ways to cope with the life-changing tragedy of Sept. 11. However, they did find a special way to pay tribute to the thousands of victims who perished in the attack.
An aluminium cuff serving as a cable shield on each of the rock abrasion tools on Mars was made from aluminium recovered from the destroyed World Trade Center towers.
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Blobrana · L

Follow the Spirit rover's journey on Mars in 3D.
(You'll need the Unity Web Player plug-in).

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Launch of the Delta II 7925 9.5 rocket carrying the Spirit, MER-A (Mars Exploration Rover - A), a robotic rover on Mars, active from 2004 to 2010.
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Last Panorama of the Spirit Rover on Mars

Credit: Mars Exploration Rover Mission, NASA, JPL, Cornell

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NASA's Spirit Rover Completes Mission on Mars

NASA has ended operational planning activities for the Mars rover Spirit and transitioned the Mars Exploration Rover Project to a single-rover operation focused on Spirit's still-active twin, Opportunity.
This marks the completion of one of the most successful missions of interplanetary exploration ever launched.
Spirit last communicated on March 22, 2010, as Martian winter approached and the rover's solar-energy supply declined.
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Nasa says Spirit rover unlikely to call home

The incredible Martian adventure of Nasa's Spirit rover is at an end.
Engineers have conceded they are unlikely ever to hear from the vehicle again and are ceasing attempts to make contact with it.
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NASA Concludes Attempts To Contact Mars Rover Spirit

NASA is ending attempts to regain contact with the long-lived Mars Exploration Rover Spirit, which last communicated on March 22, 2010.
A transmission that will end on Wednesday, May 25, will be the last in a series of attempts. Extensive communications activities during the past 10 months also have explored the possibility that Spirit might reawaken as the solar energy available to it increased after a stressful Martian winter without much sunlight. With inadequate energy to run its survival heaters, the rover likely experienced colder internal temperatures last year than in any of its prior six years on Mars. Many critical components and connections would have been susceptible to damage from the cold.
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