Published 17:54 IST, February 18th 2021

What happened to Spirit rover? Is the rover still working in 2021?

Spirit, also known as MER-2, is a Mars rover that has been active since 2004. But what happened to Spirit rover? And is it still operational? Let's find out.

Reported by: Danish Ansari
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Spirit is one of two robotic rovers that were sent to Mars for NASA's ambitious Mars Exploration Rover mission in 2003. rover landed on dusty surface of Mars on January 4, 2004, seven months after it was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida on a Delta II 7925 rocket. final descent saw rover slam onto surface and came to rest after bouncing on its airbag about 28 times. It landed nearly 13 km away from intended site, however, it was a successful descent. 

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What happened to Spirit rover?

mission was running smoothly, however, it all changed on January 21, 2004, when Spirit suddenly stopped sending data from Mars' surface. Although temporary, mission control h lost contact with Spirit as it began to perpetually reboot over some software error. Soon, rover was stabilized and it went on to pursue its mission, studying history of climate and water at various sites on planet. It also found evidence suggesting that Red Planet was much wetter once than it is w. 

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Later on, Spirit experienced some mechanical and Martian challenges. While rover was able to recover, it again started to face rebooting trouble in 2009. issue only got worse when it ran into  problem of sinking sand. same year in April, Spirit ran through a crust into sand and got stuck re. rover has been stuck at location as ncy continued to send various commands. NASA was still able to gar new data from stranded Spirit; however, on December 31, 2009, it was revealed that rover may longer have required power to last winter.

Is Spirit rover still working?

NASA was able to have a final communication with Spirit  following year on March 22, 2010, and rover has since remained silent. In total, rover was able to communicate for about 6 years, 2 months, and 19 days. However, it h far surpassed its expected lifetime. NASA h sent more than one thousand commands to Spirit to elicit a response.

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Im credits: NASA

17:54 IST, February 18th 2021