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NEWS > SCIENCE > ‘STUPID PIECE OF CRAP’ MARS ROVER STOPS RESPONDING
‘STUPID PIECE OF CRAP’ MARS ROVER STOPS RESPONDING
April 8 2010
Washington, D.C. – While many people have been less than overwhelmed with recent events in our exploration of space, the reality is we have been travelling amongst the stars for a very short period of time and done quite amazing things. Probes to distant
planets may not seem as flashy as playing golf on the moon, but from a purely scientific standpoint is far more valuable. In a little over fifty years, our exploration of our solar system, the galaxy, and the universe beyond has far exceeded anything our ancestors could have dreamed.
There have been challenges of course with equipment failures and deadly accidents unfortunately taking a great deal of the spotlight, but all in all our travels beyond our planet have been mostly successful, that is until the temperamental Mars Rover which suddenly stopped transmitting a few days ago. Designed to give us the best pictures yet of Mars, which in many ways is our sibling planet, the Rover began life with great promise, sending back information that helped scientist better understand not only the red planet, but also our own. Unfortunately, after six years it appears that the Rover has finally given up the ghost. While scientists hope that the failures of that mission may yield as benefits as the successes, many are still lamenting the demise of the ‘piece of crap’ rover.
“We are checking other less likely possibilities for the missed communication, but this probably means that Spirit tripped a low-power fault sometime between the last downlink on March 22 and yesterday. We may not hear from Spirit again for weeks or months, but we will be listening at every opportunity, and our expectation is that Spirit will resume communications when the batteries are sufficiently charged,” said project manager John Callas. “This is of course just the most recent issue. The stupid wheels have been stuck for over a year and the windshield wipers are barely functional. We’ve never been able to anything on the stupid radio either. While we are still hoping that we can regain communications, we aren’t holding out hope anymore. Frankly, I hope the stupid piece of crap is dead.”
The rover, Spirit, was launched alongside a twin named Opportunity which continues to roam the planet collecting data.
“To be fair, the rovers were expected to only last three months so they have gotten a lot more out of them than they originally expected, but that hardly makes up for it. For the last few years they have been getting great data from the machines and it should be expected to continue. With Opportunity continuing to roll around you would think it should be the same, but no,” said Scrape TV Science analyst Dr. Howard Poe. “Obviously Spirit has had its problems and while part of that could be a result of different environments between the two landing areas, odds are this one was just built poorly and is now pretty much doomed. Good riddance frankly.”
The rover has become increasingly covered in dust, obscuring the solar panels that power its mechanics, and will also have to endure colder than normal temperatures which could further damage the electronics.
“One day human beings will travel to Mars and pick this thing up and bring it back to the Smithsonian and it will be regarded as a great tribute to the early days of exploration but all in all it really is a piece of junk. Wheels are supposed to turn, rotors are supposed to rotate, and they don’t in this particular rover,” continued Poe. “Engineers will learn from this, no doubt, and be able to build better machines in the future but for now they are stuck with this piece of garbage taking up all the attention. “
The next piece of crap launched to the planet will be in September of 2011.
Anna Phillips, Science Correspondent
NEWS > SCIENCE > ‘STUPID PIECE OF CRAP’ MARS ROVER STOPS RESPONDING
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