Astronomy Picture of the Day -- Last Panorama of the Spirit Rover on Mars

NASA ^ | May 30, 2011 | (see photo credit)

[SunkenCiv]

[Credit: Mars Exploration Rover Mission, NASA, JPL, Cornell; Image Processing: Kenneth Kremer, Marco Di Lorenzo] Explanation: This is the last thing that the Spirit rover on Mars ever saw. Operating years beyond original expectations, Spirit eventually got mired in martian dirt and then ran out of power when investigating the unusual Home Plate surface feature on Mars. Visible in the above panorama are numerous rocks and slopes of the surrounding Columbia Hills of Mars. The strange hill with the light colored top, visible near the top center of the image, has been dubbed von Braun and was a future destination when Spirit got bogged down. A leading hypothesis holds that von Braun is related to martian volcanism. Last week, NASA stopped trying to contact Spirit after numerous attempts. Half a world away, Spirit's sister rover Opportunity continues to roll toward Endeavour Crater, which could become the largest crater yet visited by an earthling-created robot.

[SunkenCiv]

This space is like a Chuck Lorre vanity card.

[SunkenCiv]

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[steelyourfaith]

Thanx for the ping SunkenCiv !

[left that other site]

I remember when that landed on Mars. It was a wonderful Triumph.
Sad to see it end.

[gwilhelm56]

[kennedy]

Sheila Jackson Lee is still waiting for the Mars Rover to take a picture of the flag planted by Neil Armstrong.

[gwilhelm56]

Sorry, couldn’t resist!!

[ixtl]

I too remember the Mars landing. A TV commentator asked Ray Bradbury, who was a gueset on the program if he was disappointed that there was no evidence of intelligent life on Mars.

“On the contrary,” Bradbury replied, “Now we KNOW there is evidence of intelligent life on Mars.” (Implied: “We put it there.”)

[bunkerhill7]

At 200X, there are 3 ``roads?`` in the background leading to 2 structures(?) on hilltops.?????

[Daffynition]

Ahhhhhhh...I remember the Mars Rover.

[cripplecreek]

I always thought Opportunity was in a more interesting place.

[JoeProBono]

[Parley Baer]

Simply amazing that one of the Rovers is still in operation.

[bigheadfred]

[SERKIT]

[bigheadfred]

Future missions (just stay away from Phobos)

Name	Estimated launch	Elements	Notes
MSL Curiosity	December 2011	Rover	Powered by radioisotopes, it will perform chemical and physical analysis on martian soil and atmosphere.
Fobos-Grunt	2012[15]	Orbiter, lander, sample return	Will attempt to bring samples of Phobos’ soil back to Earth
Yinghuo-1		Orbiter	Will travel with the Russian Phobos-Grunt mission
MetNet	2012–2019	Multi-lander network	Simultaneous meteorological measurements at multiple locations.[16] First lander onboard Phobos-Grunt
Northern Light	2012[dubious – discuss]	Lander, rover	Solar powered, it will perform chemical and physical analysis on Martian soil and atmosphere[17]
MAVEN	2013	Orbiter	Part of the Mars Scout Program
ARES	2016	Rocket aircraft	Geology, atmospherics, magnetics
Mars Trace Gas Mission	2016	Orbiter	Atmospherics
and ExoMars	2016	Orbiter, static lander	TGM orbiter will deliver the ExoMars static lander
	2018	Two rovers	ExoMars rover and MAX-C rover
Mars mission	2019[18]	Orbiter	In the conceptual phase[19][20]
and Mars sample return mission	2020s	Orbiter, lander, rover, sample return	Under study; not yet funded or scheduled

[bigheadfred]

Above info from wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exploration_of_Mars

[Daffynition]

More proof of life on Mars.

[JoeProBono]

[Daffynition]

Who are these people? The guy, second from the left, has your leather coat on.