Don't Be Sad for Mars Rover, Celebrate a Robotic Life Fully Lived

We knew that this day was coming. The impending sense that we would soon have to say goodbye has lingered for months.

But in spite of the potential for sadness on this occasion, the end of the red dusty road for the Mars Rover Spirit must be embraced as a cause for celebration. If there were New Orleans-style jazz funerals for space gadgets, this would be the perfect occasion, and I'd be the first to assemble my saxophone and step into marching formation with the band.

It's so very tempting to think it would have wanted it that way. Stuck in loose soil since late spring, Spirit's continued ability to grab great data even though immobile — which amazingly included sending back smoking-gun evidence of Martian water uncovered by the very spinning of its mired wheel — hinted that the gadget might somehow have been imbued through programming with the human characteristics of perseverance, optimism and determination.

Spirit thus begged to be anthropomorphized, to be seen as a real-world facsimile of the likes of Pixar's Wal-E. Designed with the hope that both it and its companion rover Opportunity would each stay operative for a 90 day mission, these space buggies are among NASA's most smashing successes, having been on the job for six years.

But as news reports via Wired, BBC and others confirm, NASA has announced that they are powering Spirit down while enough power remains on board to receive and process one last instruction to go into hibernation mode from which return to activity is not impossible, but described as unlikely.

BBC reports that project scientists are positioning the rover so that its array of solar panels will be positioned to receive the most possible solar energy into the batteries during the approaching Martian winter. Temperatures are expected to plummet to about minus 60 Fahrenheit, which will push the design tolerance for cold that Spirit was designed to withstand under the best and straight-out-of-showroom conditions.

As quoted by BBC, NASA scientist and director of Mars exploration Doug McCuistion sums up the rover's drawn-out predicament, and wants us to buck up:

"Spirit has encountered a golfer's worst nightmare — the sand trap that no matter how many strokes you take, you can't get out of it. But this is not a day to mourn Spirit; this is not a day of loss at this point. Spirit will continue to make contributions to science."

Without a doubt: The information that Spirit and Opportunity have sent back to Earth has led to more than 100 journal papers, with untold findings still to be gleaned from the mountain of data.

Godspeed, little rover. Come back and say hello later on if you're able. But if not, you sure did good.

And you won't be forgotten.

Photo courtesy of NASA via Wikimedia Commons