After 15 years, in what was supposed to be a 3 month trip, NASA's Mars Rover Opportunity might finally be going to sleep for good. NASA is going to try one last time to reach the rover, but if they can't get a response then the program will finally officially shut down.
Submitter: At least now we know Opportunity won't take over the moon: https://xkcd.com/1504/
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NASA to Try and Reach Opportunity One Last Time, Calling It Quits After That
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(Score: 4, Informative) by black6host on Wednesday February 13 2019, @10:32PM (2 children)
I think they've called it a done deal: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/feb/13/nasa-makes-final-attempt-to-communicate-with-mars-rover-opportunity [theguardian.com]
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Wednesday February 13 2019, @10:35PM
Let it rest in peace for as many years as it will take to terraform Mars, invariably resulting in its destruction, either accidentally by drunk idiots, or on purpose by a developer trying to build a condo in a prime spot.
Human nature vs human achievements...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 14 2019, @03:52AM
Now only responding to some hackers who took it over. Sorry NASA.
(Score: 2) by looorg on Wednesday February 13 2019, @10:37PM (2 children)
Have they tried turning it off and on again? Still it's pretty good for something to last about 180 months when the prediction was three.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 14 2019, @07:07PM (1 child)
Hey Larry, doing anything?
No, not much.
So we need you to go flip a switch, ok?
Sure.
On Mars...
(Score: 2) by looorg on Thursday February 14 2019, @07:57PM
Perhaps they could send another robot to do it.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 13 2019, @10:56PM (4 children)
Mars Rovers reminds me of the Disney cartoon movie about the garbage compacting robot.
One day when we finally reached Mars, we'll dig up the machines, and build a monument for them. If we manage to stick around long enough/
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 13 2019, @11:07PM (1 child)
I should have wrote, the Disney-Pixar production of Wall-e. I am a nerd with, perhaps, unhealthy attachment to "things" (craft/built things) in comparison to people/family, but even I was surprised how the animation could draw so much empathy for a rusty metallic "machine" character.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 13 2019, @11:42PM
Don't forget the Brave Little Toaster.
(Score: 2) by istartedi on Thursday February 14 2019, @12:07AM (1 child)
The closest we've come to this is when Apollo 12 astronauts visited Surveyor 3 and took a few pieces of it back. [wikipedia.org]
Appended to the end of comments you post. Max: 120 chars.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 14 2019, @07:21PM
That was an interesting read. Best bit was with the bio-contamination policies that came from Apollo 12 and the subsequent reverse logic of NASA... instead of risking contamination of one of Jupiter's moons, hmm - maybe find a bigger target - hey, crash the probe into Jupiter proper! Why risk contaminating a (smallish) moon when you can potentially zark up the biggest plant in our solar system? Way to go guys, way to go.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 14 2019, @01:14AM
It would have to invent spaceflight first - and if it does that, no world in the visible part of the Universe is safe.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 14 2019, @06:51AM
So you think you are so smart, trying to contact a machine that you have abandoned on a lifeless world? Have you ever stopped to consider what happened to his twin? Huh? Have you, punk?
Spirit Rover [xkcd.com], imagined by Randall Monroe.