NASA hangs up on silent Mars rover Spirit

Source: AP

LOS ANGELES – Shortly after midnight, NASA sent one last plea to the silent rover Spirit, mired in a sand trap on the surface of Mars. Please phone home.

With that, the space agency ended its efforts Wednesday to contact the workhorse robot geologist, which has been unresponsive for more than a year. Rather than spend time and money hanging onto faint hope, mission managers decided to turn their focus on Spirit's healthy twin Opportunity and prepare for the upcoming launch of the next Mars mega-rover.

Orbiting spacecraft will continue to passively listen for Spirit until the end of May, but the chance of a response is slim. "There's a sadness that we have to say goodbye to Spirit," said project manager John Callas of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which runs the twin rovers. But "we have to remember the great accomplishments and the blessings that we've received of having this rover operate for so long."

NASA canceled a televised farewell fete planned for next Tuesday after The Associated Press reported this week that Spirit's mission was over. Upon hearing the news, Spirit fans commiserated on Twitter and thanked the rover for its hard work.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110525/ap_on_sc/us_sci_mars_rovers_9

Ole trustworthy explorer of new worlds...fair thee well...;-)

Think of the things we could know
for the price of munitions we love to blow.

We could reach out and touch the whole universe
or just make our blue marble ever much worse.

We still could partake of this opportunity
the will, the drive, held by you an' me.

The heavens and secrets still wait to be found
while we're busy blowin' holes in the ground.

They should have ditched this project six months ago.
There are enough other projects, wars and corporation to eat up the taxpayer dollars.
I think we have much bigger problems to solve right here, on our own sand trap.