Spirit Gets Stuck, Makes a Big Discovery

[RevRal]

Off topic. I like to imagine that when we start to colonize mars, our two robots will be recovered and put on display in reverence. Someplace where everyone can see them, much like the statues of important human figures.

I've been following these guys for so long, so this is really awesome/sad.

[prodigal_erik]

Much like a moment from a Baxter(?) novel I found very stirring. It describes a small world, completely terraformed except for a domed patch of gray sand and vacuum. The dome was built to preserve an ancient spacecraft named Eagle and the footprints of its crew.

[mnemonicsloth]

Further off-topic: My college robotics professor used to go on and on about how incredible it was that the Mars rovers had lasted twice as long as in the spec.

He was from Glasgow and had a really thick Scottish accent, and he was obsessed with Daryl Hannah's character in Blade Runner. He used to say "Noow tha' theer... tha's a sexxeh rrowb't."

At some point, he decided that Spirit and Opportunity were "sexxeh" as well.

[riffic]

three rovers, don't forget Sojourner.

[aerique]

Same here. I'm so impressed these have been in operation for 6 years!

[pierrefar]

Very verbose and longwinded article. Summary: Rover gets stuck straddling a crater. Wheels sping uncovering sulfates. Sulfates are associated with volcanic steam vents.

[pavs]

I think they intentionally did that to make science appealing and interesting to people who otherwise couldn't care less. I think they did a good job with that article.

I like that. We need more people to be interested in science and less on reality TV and celebrities.

[Semiapies]

Less than 800 words is a "very verbose and longwinded article"?

How on Earth have you managed to actually RTFA at HN? People don't often link to tweets, here.

[nebula]

A very interesting TED talk on Mars rovers: http://www.ted.com/talks/charles_elachi_on_the_mars_rovers.h...

Apparently NASA didn't expect them to function this long; on the dusty Martian surface, the solar panels should have been covered with dust completely, leaving the rovers dead long ago. It's a lucky coincidence that "sand devils" on Mars had been cleaning the solar panels and keeping the rovers alive.

[johnyzee]

Windshield wipers?

Seriously though, NASA is very PR savvy. Announcing the robots' lifespan as three months was probably just to make sure they would overdeliver.

Still an awesome accomplishment.

[sili]

What are the chances of using the rover's arm to pull it out of the sand-pit when it gets stuck? Or is it to underpowered to be of any help?

[pvandehaar]

either: It doesn't reach down that far, or it can't lift, or they haven't thought of that.

[schammy]

NASA needs a TL;DR version of their articles.

[dkersten]

I know! I read the first few sentences and they mentioned this amazing discovery, but it forced me to scan down about half way through the article to actually find out what it was..

[Raphael]

The image looks like there's a puddle of water.

[tengkahwee]

I thought this has something to do with the supernatural.