Spirit: End of Mission Options

[briv1016]

New Update:

http://www.planetary.org/news/2011/0430_Ma...ate_Spirit.html

There is only so much that can be done from down here, and the countdown to the end of mission for Spirit has quietly, unofficially begun behind the scenes. Word is that NASA headquarters is preparing to announce that MER will continue as a one-rover mission around the first of June.

Later:

JPL's crew will continue the current recovery operations, which take place several times a day, through May 25th, informed Nelson. Following that, "greatly reduced recovery operations" -- averaging one effort each week -- will continue through the end of the year.

[Bill Harris]

Spirit: you are born, you live, and you die, but the important thing is what you do inbetween.

--Bill

[SFJCody]

A glorious mission seems to have come to a close. In the annals of unmanned spaceflight the overland multi-year travels of Spirit and her sister, flung across the void to crawl the world next door, are almost without parallel. The numerous trials, tribulations and hard-fought successes of this machine made the urge to anthropomorphize her almost overwhelming, and with that has come a sense of loss at her passing. She may be dead but her scientific and exploratory achievements, which belong to all of those who had a hand in her story, will live on.

[MahFL]

The drive towards the Columbia Hills was one of the most exciting things I have seen, almost each day new details of the hills came into sight.