The Discovery News reported that One of NASA’s six-year-old Mars rovers missed its winter wake-up call, prompting concerns that it may never recover from the frigid cold. During previous winters, Spirit was able to get to a sun-facing slope in Gusev Crater before the deep cold set in, a position that left it able to draw enough power from its solar cells to keep heaters turned on and to phone home on occasion.
Mired by two broken wheels and stuck in the sand for more than a year, Spirit went into hibernation in March, suspending all communications and other activities so any available energy can be used to recharge and heat batteries and keep its mission clock ticking.
Ground control teams began sending out a beacon for Spirit on July 26, but the rover has not yet responded. In a press release on Friday, NASA put out the word that it may never wake. Spirit and a twin rover named Opportunity arrived on Mars in January 2004 for what was expected to be a three-month mission. Opportunity, which is en-route to a large crater named Endeavour, remains in good health. This week, it sent home its first picture of a Martian dust devil.
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