On Tuesday night, NASA made one last call to Opportunity, which was silenced last summer by a giant dust storm. There was no answer.
“It was an incredibly somber moment,” said Tanya Harrison, a member of the mission’s science team who was present in Pasadena, Calif., at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory during the final attempt to reach the rover. “Just waiting for the inevitable, basically.”
I would like to know if this was filmed. Because, damn.
Leave no one behind
Nah - they can just put a little glass dome over it, a museum exhibit for eternity.
Can posting this image be considered an emotional war crime? /s but srsly *sniff*
The next rovers that land on Mars should include pressurized air nozzles to blast the solar panels clean, along with a gas collection and pressurization system to refill the tanks with what thin atmosphere Mars has to keep the cleaning going after the original tank contents are used up. Or something infinitely more clever that accomplishes the same thing, what do I know it's goddamn NASA. And it'd be cool if a rover could roll up on Opportunity and blow its panels clean, too. Or at least observe the rover's condition to see what long-term Mars exposure does.
I never been this sad over an inanimate object
The remains would last longer out there with how fast we're killing ourselves. Let him rest.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=0&v=1Ll-VHYxWXU
Nasa also had a press conference and there was some very neat stuff in it about curiosity.
The next one they send should have a livestream to youtube the same way that submarine youtube channel does it.
Could a dust devil or somesuch clear out the solar panel enough to render it operable again?
In the past it has, but after a while there just isn't much that can be done.
Those rovers used electric heaters to keep warm at night or during martian winter, with the batteries completely drained even if you were to clean the solar panels the electronics would be long dead anyway.
Also another sad thing, barring any malfunction or dust, those rovers were designed to run on solar power forever - meanwhile Curiosity uses a nuclear battery that will run out at some point and there's nothing we can do about that
I'm always torn between whether they should one day be brought home or if they should be left there. That XKCD comic always gives me a shove in the direction of bringing them home, but part of me still thinks they should be turned in to monuments for whenever we are able to truly start inhabiting the planet.
I have incredibly strong empathy towards technology, in particular computers, drones, things like that. Its actually physically painful for me to watch videos of people fucking around with drones on youtube and wrecking them. And every time a rover is lost that just tears me the fuck up.
https://youtu.be/X_id1kLhyT4
It's incredible.
We send a machine on a one-way trip to an alien world, many of which nobody has seen in person (neither the robot nor the planet).
They knew the likelihood of it even making it to the red planet was a coin-toss in the grand scheme of things (given that half of all Mars missions have failed).
And yet this humble machine, with no personality and no human qualities in its design, millions of miles away, has moved us to tears over its demise.
People dream fruitlessly that somehow, it can come back. But the temperatures will have likely ruined its batteries beyond any usability, never mind how the many charge/discharge cycles over the years will have worn them out. And this makes people sad. Distraught, even.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2arm5ydeJc
Rest in peace you marvelous piece of technology
Opportunity and spirit both used Li-ion batteries, those types of batteries dont like to be charged when cold (under freezing temps). If the solar panels did kick in the batteries will likely never hold a charge again, or in a worst case catch on fire which could happen even on mars since the cells supply their own oxygen.
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