it'd be an end of an era with its death as I don't believe anyone has plans for more solar powered rovers in the future. NASA's skycrane technique allows for much more ambitious landings with nuclear powered rovers not nearly as constrained in size as the gas bag landers were.
Imagine how exciting it would be in the future when we start to colonise Mars and we find these guys sitting by themselves in the desert, untouched by time and preserved for countless decades.
I hope it sings to itself when powered back on.
Does it get to come home?
wrong rover
Then it decides to murder everyone
sojourner would stop it! that little breadbox wouldn't let anything stop it
15 years is well beyond what they ever expected this little guy to achieve, I hope it's not done just yet but it still managed to accomplish a lot.
I imagine if we do colonise Mars to a good degree that the rovers will be all scouted retrived and put on display at a museum.
Our great grand children go on vacation to the red planet, and take a trip to the 'Martian Colonial Museum' and go the the Rover displays, reading the history and descriptions of each Rover wondering how they even sent functional rovers with a tiny fraction of the computational power of the phones in their pockets. (Assuming cell phones are still a thing 100 or so years from now)
Nasa, Elon and Boeing scrap sending men there for now
BRING
HIM
HOME
#Bringhimhome
This little guy did so much for us, it far exceeded even our most optimistic expectations, he deserves to come home.
Sadly, I can also imagine the headlines reading "BREAKING: SPIRIT ROVER STOLEN FROM MARS MUSEUM"
and mark the spot where the journey concluded. A great memorial must be made in their honor.
https://i.imgur.com/VbKV9DF.jpg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAX2H0hpOc4
And the last footage it got was an alien saying something like "THEY'RE COMING! THE*bzzzzzt*"
15 years out of a rover designed to last just three months?
It has earned its sleep.
I am so fascinated by the idea of tech doing its job and lasting a long time without maintenance. It's really impressive it's lasted such a crazy amount of time without breaking.
I'd love to see a photo of its current state, but it's probably going to be a long time before such a photo exists.
Only reason I didn't use that one is because it's about Spirit, the other rover.
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