Goodbye Spirit, but hello OSIRIS-REx

Two milestone but bittersweet announcements today from NASA… first, the formal end of mission for the Mars rover Spirit, after no communication for almost a year now, despite many repeated attempts. Spirit had gone into winter hibernation as in previous years, but this time, after being stuck in a deep sand trap for so long, with dwindling power, apparently wasn’t able to come out of it’s sleep this time. But for a mission initially designed to last three months, Spirit last about seven years! The other rover, Opportunity, however, continues to make its way across the Meridiani plains, and is now getting close to the huge Endeavour crater, which we’ve been eagerly waiting for, for a long time now…

On a positive note though, there was also announced today a new deep-space mission to launch in 2016 called Origins-Spectral Interpretation-Resource Identification-Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) which will bring samples back to Earth from asteroid 1999 RQ36. As well as providing new information on the history of asteroids and the solar system, it will also help pave the way for a future manned mission to an asteroid, as directed by President Obama, before going to Mars.