io9
The brave, unflagging Mars rover Spirit, who has lived on the Red Planet for almost four years, has been given a death sentence by the U.S. government. Right now, the little robot is resting on a sunny slope, waiting out the winter and preparing to do more tests on the Martian atmosphere. But now it looks like Spirit has rolled on its six wheels and done science experiments for the very last time. The U.S. government has forced NASA, this country's national space agency, to cut its budget by 4 million dollars. And that means only one rover, Opportunity, will survive. To say that this is a tragedy is an understatement.
The Mars rovers have been one of NASA's most proud achievements, and the information they gather today can help future planetary colonists tomorrow. While NASA is planning to land another rover on Mars within the next year, it's a shame to shut down a perfectly serviceable rover that could be supplementing what the new rover will learn.
With the Earth population skyrocketing, and urban overcrowding only likely to get far worse over the coming decades, preparing to colonize other plants should be more of a priority than ever. And every time we shut down a NASA program like the rovers, we step backward, away from the goal of leaving Earth. We also hinder our search for knowledge beyond this planet.
If I thought that money being cut from NASA's budget were going to developing renewable energy or bettering urban environments, I wouldn't be quite so pissed off. At least in that case, the money would be going toward building a better future Earthside. But it's not. Instead it's being used to bail out Bear Stearns.
Why doesn't a philanthropist like Bill Gates or Paul Allen step forward and write a check to save Spirit?
Spirit is an awesome robot, with awesome developers and operators at NASA, who braved the elements and mechanical problems to help advance our understanding of Martian geochemistry and atmosphere. The U.S. government should be ashamed that it has effectively killed fifty percent of its only science lab on another planet.
Above, you can see a picture Spirit took of its own tracks in the dust.
Kthxbai, Spirit, kthxbai.
UPDATE: NASA has just confirmed that the rovers will NOT be shut down! Hooray! [AP via Yahoo! News]
NASA Cut Means No More Roving for Mars Rover [AP via PhysOrg]
Comments
Yesterday's news?
You know some alien's going to swoop down and 2.0 that thing..
alas, I barely knew ye.
Meanwhile, we dump 2 billion a week into a failed war.
@zenpoet: Meet me 'neath the bay bridge of 'cisco
@TommySez: It's a trap!
WTF!? Now that they finally have a solar powered Rover up there, why not use it until it doesn't work anymore?
That's a big waste of resources. Maybe they could sell the Rover and the Frequencies to reach it to a University?
Of course it's better to pay to lower the taxes of the increasingly inbred ultra rich than advance mere science with those silly robot things.
Uh, hello? Google? Yeah, I've got a pretty good idea of what you could integrate into the next version of Google Sky...
Seriously, Google needs to buy it.
@ManchuCandidate: Who knew? Spirit, done in by the Bear-Stearns bailout.
I think Spirit will go rogue. I'm having a Bolo moment, where the first people to land on Mars are attacked by a small robot...
@TommySez: True. We can fund a stupid war, send money overseas, etc. but can't fund true cutting edge explorations. I mean we have machines on another planet moving and performing experiments! Very exciting and cool, but I guess since there is no "space rac" anymore, the government doesn't care.
I, for one, will welcome our new Spirit overlord when it becomes self aware with the help of Vyger and returns to enact its revenge on the US government.
I'll be voting on the NASA-ican ticket.
We need ants to colonize them plants
@ManchuCandidate: Even better, the cost of the Spirit mission is completely in the noise. It has a major advantage over any other mission in the planning stages; it's already there. There are no cost overruns, etc. Quite literally, Spirit's costs are paying the few engineers that run it, the scientists using it for science, and a little here and there to the DSN to keep the data flowing.
Seems like this might be a good opportunity (no pun intended) for private enterprise to step in.
Sir Richard, are you listening?
Now I see why the scientists actually put a laser turret and nuclear power cells on the Mars Science Laboratory rover [mars.jpl.nasa.gov] which launches next year.
Try cutting that thing's funding off!
Seriously though this is terribly short sighted. We have this incredible data source, which is mirrored on both sides of mars, giving us good comparative data. The discoveries are pouring in on topics relevant to normal people like:
- life in our solar system
- the prehistory of the solar system
- water on other bodies
- planetary climactic collapse
Being able to compare with a third data source soon is going to give us higher degrees of confidence and greater understanding. When a scientific endeavors is unusually successful it needs to be exploited!
The project is also inspirational like the space program needs to be, but with a fraction of the cost. The world needs more people educated in the sciences, inspired to advance technology and unafraid of math.
NEWS FLASH!: Both rovers will keep going.
LOS ANGELES (AP) - NASA says it has absolutely no plan to turn off either of the Mars Rovers because of budget cuts.
NASA is saying Tuesday that it has rescinded a letter that recommended budget cuts in the Mars Rover program to cover the cost of a next-generation rover on the Red Planet.
The move comes a day after scientists at the agency's robotics center said they would need to hibernate one of the twin Mars robots and limit the duties of the other because their budget was being cut by $4 million.
That announcement was based on a letter NASA sent to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena last week.
But NASA is saying in a statement Tuesday that neither of the rovers will be shut down.
When I think of how many dumb silicon valley companies get 4 million dollars thrown at them by VC, I feel even more sick. There are people who could toss 4 million dollars at this and not even notice. What is NASA's problem that they can't raise this money? Why isn't some aerospace company jumping on this, think of the fucking publicity... it's MARS.
Seems a shame to loose it, for a lousy 4 million dollars. With only 11 more shuttle missions to go before they mothball the fleet, you'd think they'd want to keep more missions running, in order to keep them in the public eye.
Maybe they figure that just one rover plus the Phoenix Mars Lander (coming May 25 to a planetary surface near you) will be enough to keep people interested?
I would like to propose that we start lobbying Google to encourage them to purchase the rover program from NASA and operate it themselves.
This may sound a little crazy at first pass... but I just sent a suggestion to Google via their "contact us" link, selected "business proposal" and told them to buy the Spirit Rover from NASA.
It makes perfect sense for them: it's a huge PR win, they already have a partnership with NASA anyway with regards to imaging and sharing airfields, and they already have Google Mars, so there's a good business case for them to continue its operation.
If anyone has any pull with Google... try and make this suggestion to them! And if we all send the same suggestion to their contact us link, maybe they'll listen!
Ronestar is correct. This was a threat in a long-standing argument between the deputy director of NASA who is very anti-Mars and the Mars Program. The problem here is really that the Mars Science Lander (MSL) project is way way WAY over budget, and the deputy director is threatening all sorts of things.
I also agree with all the war comments.
@Ronestar & @xoff: There is a war of words going on, but the director did not say the rovers would not be shut down - he said "the program will not be cancelled".
It costs $20 million a year to operate the program; that's chicken feed to Google! If they buy the program and operate it, it'll be a huge business and PR win for them.
@DarkPlaces: They beat you to it: Google Mars [www.google.com]
i can understand the fantastic costs in designing and building these things, but surely at this point the costs involved in running the rovers are mainly staffing related, and upkeep on the equipment we use to communicate with them.
waaaaalll-ee
So now it's official: Really and for true, the Bush administration is responsible for the death of Spirit.
This has changed. NASA is not going to be taking the little guy offline. They will be leaving it up and running for the coming Mars winter. No word yet as to where the funding is going to come from
@X: The Eliminator: Weird, I thought the same thing...
@aquarius8me: Can you cite an article or source for this information?
@Annalee Newitz:
[www.pasadenastarnews.com]
It's hard to tell what they're going to do at this point. Spirit will have to go into sleep anyway to save its batteries over the Martian winter. When/if they wake it up will depend on the results of NASA politics.
"Why doesn't a philanthropist like Bill Gates"
Because he's the dullest, most boring person alive. For example, he's worth $60 billion, and can't think of anything better to do than go to work.
I don't know who the other guy is, so I can't comment.
-Kle.
One way or another they will live on...
What I would like to see Spirit do is go for some distance at a breakneck pace (within reason of course) and try to find some new targets south of where it is currently once it's done with the Martian winter blues. Gusev crater is an interesting place but Spirit has been roving a relatively small area of the foothills for a really long time. Let's kick up some Martian dust!
On the other hand Opportunity is in a great spot right now exploring the awesome football stadium size Victoria crater where it can spend quite a long time to study further and further layers of exposed outcrop. For Opportunity to reach something more interesting it would have to travel quite a long ways over mostly flat sandy terrain.
@Annalee Newitz:
io9 updated ;) th3y are a1ways on top of things.
Oh joy! The search for Martian Mermmaids will continue!
good night sweet prince
This will be peanuts compared to what an Obama administration is committed to cutting from NASA's budget (basically all).
I'm sure actual human beings who are innocent but have been railroaded into the death penalty by fuckers in government right here in America (and where isn't America?) are rolling in their teeny, sterilized, horrifically frightening cells over your high-larious puns!
How about a pay for use service? Let people pay to drive the rover around and complete research tasks.
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