Extricating Spirit, Digging out from Troy Options

[djellison]

When she can communicate, she will.

[Astro0]

Does anyone have any good images of Spirit's underside ie: bottom of the WEB.
I'm looking for an image that shows what might have made what appears to be an impression in the soil near what again I'm assuming is 'Pointy Rock'.

Any help? Thoughts?

[mcaplinger]

Normally anthropomorphizing spacecraft leaves me cold, but check out http://xkcd.com/695/

[Hungry4info]

Aww q_q
I'm not going to lie, that made me tear up a bit.

[Mixer]

I'm not going to lie, that made me tear up a bit.

Seconded. I have to admit I anthropomorphize our little buddy on Mars.

[climber]

Only Stu could have done this.
This is it.

[nprev]

Great article, Stu. Not at all a requiem, but a celebration of change for Spirit...with many doors still open.

[paxdan]

XKCD Poor Spirit

[JohnVV]

" did i do a good job ?"

"do i get to come home ?"

"guys???"

[Astro0]

Well, it seems that Spirit may have come to the end of her travels (at least for now).
As she settles in for winter and commences her 'first stationary science campaign',
Stu and I have collaborated on a poster and poem to mark this new chapter (not the last) in Spirit's journey on Mars.


UPDATE: Full size poster 5.06mb on my blog.
Enjoy

[climber]

I did enjoy this one A LOT.

In many many sols from now,
Spirit will still be there talking to us,
Weels tracks nowhere to be seen,
No clue where she did come from.

[Greg Hullender]

I'm usually very critical of anthromophizing machines or animals, but I have to admit that somehow today's XKCD touched me deeply too. I think it's "did I do a good job?" that did it to me . . .

--Greg

[marsophile]

When she can communicate, she will.

At the audio briefing, it was said that the low-power fault mode might be modified so that Spirit will only communicate when hailed, to save additional power. In that case, we will have no way of knowing whether Spirit is still alive until the Spring. So if some very low-power way could be found of indicating whether Spirit is still alive, that might be useful.

[hendric]

Would it be lower power to move the camera or antenna mast than to transmit? Perhaps MRO could monitor the shape and position of their shadow on the surface (I assume it would be too hard to see the actual mast). Have it vary between t and l each day or week, as a heartbeat. I know we could see the mast shadow from Opportunity at Victoria, but I'm not sure how definitive it would be pointed each way to maximize/minimize each shadow. Although, as an engineer, it would be a bit risky to have it moving back and forth without feedback on its status. Maybe they could use the positions of the hardware as a "poor man's" memory between low power fault reboots.

[peter.neaum]

Well, I return from a micro holiday (Australia Day), floating for hours down the Murray River on a lilo, and the "stationary science platform" media release awaits me.
Ah well, I suppose all good things must come to an end.

I find it ironic that this decision occurs - after start of an (seemingly) amazing recovery discovered by finding the reverse gear! These sentiments are echoed elsewhere on this topic. There are hints however, that next year, they may try to move it again - fingers crossed - especially if over the next few weeks of "position[ing] itself to combat the severe Martian winter..." it should pop up and out of it's current sand trap and over onto firmer terrain.

I note the ideas about positioning the arm/camera to be a visible indication of 'alive status' to the HiRise camera.
Wouldn't a heartbeat 'beep' use less power and be a more reliable status indicator?


Q1) Was there any official word or hypothesis on the (temporarily) resurrected wheel that was in action briefly only a week or so ago? Reasoning for it rejuvenation / demise?

Q2) Is there a site where the rover power levels/telemetry is visible?
(I recall seeing sites where live system data was available for a satellite (I think) voltage levels / telemetry etc.... like this): http://www-istp.gsfc.nasa.gov/windnrt/