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Police identify the victims in the Nashville elementary school shooting. The children killed were all 9 years old. cnn.it/3zhVjIN
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RT @CNN: The shooter who killed six people, including three students, at a Christian school in Nashville on Monday morning was a 28-year-ol…
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Nashville police say a gunman is dead following an "active shooter event" at a private Christian elementary school cnn.it/3JRl1c4
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Controversial plans to overhaul Israel's judiciary will be paused, one of Netanyahu's far-right coalition partnersâ€twitter.com/i/web/status/1…HA
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Spirit may be fading on Mars, NASA says
NASA to Mars rover:Â Phone home or else.
The space agency said it will reach out to contact the Mars rover Spirit a final time Wednesday after a series of unanswered attempts.
NASA speculates that an extreme Martian winter may have frozen the rover’s communication apparatus or weakened its energy level, hindering its ability to communicate.
In a press release Tuesday, NASA said, in essence, what we have here is a failure to communicate.
"We no longer believe there is a realistic probability of hearing from Spirit," Dave Lavery, NASA’s program executive for solar system exploration, said in the release.
Created for a three-month mission, Spirit landed on Mars in January 2004 and exceeded its intended life span by several years, giving scientists an in-depth look at the surface conditions of the red planet.
But there have been obstacles - namely massive dust storms, paralyzing sandboxes and plain ol' feisty weather that has challenged the rover's functionality.
Over most of the past seven years though, despite various violent conditions, Spirit has always managed to re-establish connection.
Not this time.
The last transmission received by the rover was March 22, 2010, NASA said.
The rover program will now focus its energies on Spirit’s twin rover, Opportunity, which landed 21 days after Spirit. Also, NASA is prepping the November launch of Curiosity, a bigger, more-tricked out rover (six 20-inch wheels?) slated to arrive on Mars in mid-2012.
As for Spirit, NASA said any communication from the rover will basically be relegated to voice mail.
“The Deep Space Network may occasionally listen for any faint signals when the schedule permits," Lavery is quoted in the release.
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In the years to come, some astronaut will land on Mars, and kick Spirit on the upside, like that lawn mower that won't start, and it will work again. Congrats to NASA for a job done well beyond expectations.
Right, and then Spirit will flare to life, destroy the astronaut, take over their ship and invade Earth. Maybe kicking robots on other planets isn't smart...what could possibly go wrong?
Well said.
@Dave! ROFL!!! 😀
Yep, it's been a LONG 90 SOL mission, that much is certain. It WOULD be funny if an astronaut DID land nearby, kick it and it sprang back to life again though.
That is one excellent design, operating WAY beyond the mission requirement, with minimal problems.
Dave, how many times do you have to keep on with this. I'm nobody, can't do anything and don't want to. You Win. You know everything about me. You obviously wish me dead and you will get your wish.
I wonder if NASA will go after the missing rover to see what really happened? I'm sure they have the last location to know where it is. Don't they have a satilite taking detail pictures of the planet. Maybe they could see it in detailed photos. I want to know what really happen to it.
What do you mean, "what happened to it"?!?
"Created for a three-month mission, Spirit landed on Mars in January 2004 and exceeded its intended life span by several years"
If I remember correctly they sent it into hibernation for the Martian Winter and it didn't come out. There was speculation that the solar panels were covered with dust and the rover was unable to charge
It broke down. It was designed to last 90 Sols, which are a bit longer than an Earth day. It's lasted 25 times as long.
I'd love to do a post mortem on it as well, just to see the exact failures caused by the harsh environment there. But, it's a GREAT design, for it to last so long and work so well during that time!
A buggalo stomped on it.
@ M W – Osama died 10 years ago from Marfans, How can we not eat ourselves into a coma with all the awesome advertizing, who cares about the oceans, and remote control cars are awesome!!!
There, the typical american answer. But really...did you expect any different?
I bet it got a picture of a Martian who a wee bit too much too drink and let himself be photographed and they decided they had to disable it.
Assembled in America, but I'm sure all the parts were from China. Just like Legos.
Are you saying that because it was created for a 3 month mission but lasted over 6 years?
So, you're saying Chinese parts are good right? Because these parts lasted for 2400% of their original goal (100% = 3 months)....
The only thing made in china the rover has is jealousy.
(in Russian accent)
"AMERICAN COMPONENTS! RUSSIAN COMPONENTS! ALL MADE IN TAIWAN!"
Just the fact that they can pull this sort of thing off is enough for me to want to keep them well funded. I have no problems paying more in taxes as long as its going toward good causes and not into rich peoples pockets.....
So how much money is this costing the American taxpayers? It's uninhabitable and a waste of resources.
Waist of money????? The rovers that were supposed to work for only 3 months ended up working for more then seven years. And one is still operational. Id say they got their moneys worth on this one.
It's worth it in the science and inspiration. Small minds will say what a waste of money while others will see that all that money went back into our system and was used for our society. We didn't box up millions of dollars in cash and send it to Mars.
"It's uninhabitable and a waste of resources."
So is Arizona, but we keep sending THEM money.
From Mars, we've gathered knowledge from "Spirit" and "Opportunity."
The only thing we've gotten from Arizona is Jan Brewer and Joe Arpaio – "The Mean Spirit" and "Mr. Opportunity."
The thing is, in the distant future the Earth will resemble Mars.
Ditto on the AZ comment! the fact is MARs is the most habitable planet in our solar system. It could be a source of future resources for millennia to come.
Shut up Ang...........
Cave....You....Go now....
Sorry Ang, this is the year 2011. All the family you knew from 1820 are long dead. We would send you back to your time, but the taxpayers won't fund a time machine.
Thank you little robot.
You are most welcome, sir.
Spirit gave us some great images and incredible intel. Congrats to NASA on a job very well done one a project that far exceeded expectations.
This is awesome. I took 10 years to find Osoma. Americans refuse to stop eating themselves to death, and we still know very little about our own oceans.
But we can have remote controlled cars driving around Mars for years. Great.
It's sad that you see it that way. Try to think of all the paychecks that were generated by those 'remote controlled cars driving around Mars for years' and all the science that was developed and applied. How many people went to college on that money.
Are you making a point or just grumbling?
How do you know we know little about the oceans? boy, you believe everything the government concocts. Everyone knows alien bases litter the deep ocean floor and by treaty we are not to interfere with each other.
I thought it was established that the Decepticons were to blame for the Mars rover failure.
Nice
What a terribly slanted article. For a better view of what NASA thinks of Spirit/Opportunity, read the article about this topic on space.com.
Some people probably wont see it this way but I see this as a huge return on investment for the American tax payer. This thing was budgeted to perform for 3 months and lasted 7 yrs longer! We should do the following 1. Thank our design and mfg team for making such a seemingly indestructable pc of equipment. 2. Stop people when they critizes NASA or space exploration budget increases. The people of Earth will be learning from the data these two probes have tranmitted for years to come, how can you put a price tag on that kind of knowledge?
For a price tag, it is easy. Invaluable. The data was far, far, far more than was originally planned for, proving that the two rovers were one of the best investments ever made!
Hopefully the new rovers will be built and sent and perform at least as well as the two rovers that are there now.
Rest in peace, little Spirit, you've inspired an entire generation and earned your place in the hall of fame of all explorers.
"Find out what happened to it?" They know exactly where it is, this isn't a mystery. It's been stuck in a dune for the last year and a bit.
I believe the plan is to colonize this planet in the near future. The atmosphere would need slight alterations for humans to inhabit mars and we now have the technology to make these alterations possible.
SLIGHT modification? It's a near vacuum, the pressure lower than Earth's atmospheric pressure at 40000 feet, which is 100% lethal to humans.
Mars also doesn't have enough gravity to hold an ozone layer. Any time there is a solar wind some of the Martian atmosphere flies out into space due to the weak magnetic field. Err something to that effect. Humans would need radiation protective habitats and suits as well as oxygen supplies. Simply terraforming would not be enough.
This is what NASA is good at. Unmanned exploration is by far more effecient than manned flights. If NASA wants to fling probes in every direction, s'ok with me.
100% agreement with that – probably a thousand times cheaper, and the science gathered by a robot on a long-term mission would be much more worthwhile than watching some guys land, get a little red dust on their suits, and then leave. Go robots!