Spirit Rover is Switched Off to Save NASA Money (Update)

by Ian O'Neill on March 24, 2008

The MER Spirit Rover (credit: NASA)
To save the Mars Expedition Rover (MER) program some cash, controllers will be forced to switch one of the four-year old rovers into “hibernation mode”. NASA wants to cut $4 million from the MER budget, so extreme measures are needed. Sadly, operations will need to be limited and it has been announced today that activities will be stopped on Spirit for the coming weeks. Mission scientists are obviously demoralized.

[UPDATE (03/25/08): NASA has now announced that it has "absolutely no plans" to turn off the Mars rovers, only hours after mission scientists announced they had new directives from the organization to cut $4 million from budget cuts. When more news is forthcoming I will post an article as to what is going on... ]

This appears to be the case of a mission being too successful for its own good.

The MER project was only intended to last for a few months, but the two rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, have surpassed all expectations and continued to explore the planet for four whole years. They are so efficient, that they have braved the worst dust storms, battled through technical issues and even freed themselves from quicksand, there seems to be nothing standing in their way of these super robotic troopers…

Except NASA budget cuts.

When the money runs out, the rovers have to be shut down and this is exactly what is going to happen to Spirit, currently located on a sunny slope at Gusev Crater. Even though the rovers are in the middle of an extensive exploratory phase of the Martian landscape, a NASA directive must be enforced to save $4 million from the project’s $20 million annual budget.

Shutting down Spirit isn’t the only budget-saving measure to be taken. Opportunity’s tasks will now be severely cut; limiting commands to be sent from controllers to every other day, rather than daily.

MER controllers are said to be very demoralized by these measures. Although budget cuts can never come at a “good time”, the timing of this announcement is terrible as both rovers are operating at full strength and still have vast amounts of potential.

The problem is that NASA is currently being stretched to accommodate other Mars missions currently in operation. But when should a highly successful mission like the MER project end? Up till now, most Mars surface missions are good until they break down. In the case of Spirit and Opportunity, neither is showing many signs of breaking. So for now, controllers will have to hover by the “off” switch while budget requirements are met.

Source: PhysOrg.com

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  • Mr. LAME

    …meanwhile http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5iT8hpfJVQYqLAi2SPTjTdIkH6nsQ

    first robots on mars , damn we can do more if we want next target titan :)

  • Scott

    All of you people whining about government waste in other places have no poblem with THIS government waste because it is YOUR government waste. This program far outlived expectations. Let’s move on and invest the resources in other projects.

  • David

    Scott, what do you suggest? Surely you have an idea. This is a waste because of the money already spent in infrastructure – the hard part has already been done. It’s like buying a car, expecting it to last 3 years and at 10 years you stop using it because it needs an oil change. I’d rather spend 4 million on this then 4 million on a single smart bomb.

    Perhaps Paul Allen will fund this.

  • David

    Winston, it may be non-productive for you, but what about the pure discovery? Humans (many of them, anyway) have always been about seeing what’s over the next hill, or past the next island. If the choice was purely an investment, then discovery would never take place – just stay put, invest in what you already know.

    Strange choice, too in that this regime, despite its many glaring problems, had previously been a friend to the space program. It was one of the few positives one could point to.

  • http://www.theopenfile.com Mikel

    I agree that I’d like to see the project continue, and I’m sure the $4 million can be found.

    However, everyone please get a grip, and stop using the strawman argument of military spending. It’s purely emotional, and won’t hold water with ANY politician in Washington. The two budgets are totally separate, so quit thinking we can “borrow” $4 million from one to pay for the other. Won’t happen. If you want to write your congressman (or woman), do so in a constructive way. In order to get results, it would help to “play the game” according to the current rules. Of course, changing the rules is a noble goal, but would take too long to help Spirit.

  • David

    I think my other friends who have posted comments have summed up my feelings. However, I still want to vent. This really sucks. This is absolute stupidity. We have two functioning multi-million-dollar mobile labs that are still producing science. I don’t get it. Some goofball wants to stop it because they want to save 4 million bucks to invest in future missions that do not have any guarantee of success??? That makes a helluva lot of sense now, doesn’t it. With that logic, we might as well take the 4 million and go to Vegas and gamble. This has to rank as one of the biggest blunders of all time. Imagine if we all used the same logic in our daily decision making. “Hmmm, I have something that works and is producing something that I need and value. I think I will stop it so that I can save money toward future projects that are not even completed yet.” The future is not certain. We don’t even know if future budgets will allow for uncompleted missions and projects to be completed. But it’s so comforting to know that we can spend money and resources in bailing out failed speculative investors like Bear Stearns and justify just about every other governmental spending project while seemingly ignoring our 9 trillion dollar debt. I am completely outraged.

  • Archer

    What science has it produced lately? I’m as upset about this as anyone, but NASA cannot continue to function if it doesn’t share that science with the general public. There is absolutely NO excitement what-so-ever getting generated. Why is that? We’re too stuck on Brittany Spears bawling on the curb?

    The same goes for the ISS. We have all these new modules producing “Science”. Where is this reported? What has it discovered? Why is it the only time I heard of any successful science in space was when the story of Columbia was broadcast? Why does it take a tragedy for us to learn what great things they accomplished in their 16 days of space?

    This is a true tragedy of our time. We have ceased to “wonder” as a society. We have ceased to “dream” about exploration. Pass the carmel corn while we watch the next episode of Judge Judy.

    Sigh.

  • http://www.spacebull.com Eric Conrad

    It just seems to me that a working project is more valueable than a future one… Can we pull the $4 million from another mission not off the ground yet?

    However, this $4 million only covers the rest of this year. What happens in the FY09 budget, where they are short $10+ million? Unfortunetly, this is just one of those things that happens during budget cuts.

    It is a shame, however, that one of the most successful landing missions of all time, which has actually captured the hearts of some non-space people, will be shut down for a time. Couldn’t we take the extra million from the outer planets program scheduled for FY09? I can’t imagine the few million would make a whole lot of difference there. While the money would make a HUGE difference on the MERs.

    Sigh…

  • Hawkus

    Can’t they get some kind of sponsorship deal? $4Mill is such small-beer it’s shocking that they can’t find it. It’s pocket-change for any large corporation

  • 4gea

    If it were 4 billion dollars, I would understand it. But to shut down a successful research program for 4 million is not a sound decision.
    And yes, I think comparisons with money spent in a war is fair – after all, today’s military technology is developed on the basis of lots of research, space-research included. But I guess such logic escapes the key people.
    Those who say that the MER program is a waste of time and money couldn’t be more wrong. As someone who’s followed these missions from the landing, I can safely say there’s more scientific discovery been going on through this program than in several research labs combined. But the ways research and findings about other planets influences us here on Earth is another topic.

  • http://eastsideastro.org Tom

    I’m absolutely disgusted. Just put the f***ing war in Iraq on hold for a few just a few minutes, there will be plenty of money to pay for the rovers until they die naturally.

    Dubya sucks.

  • Kevin

    I am obviously uninformed and naive regarding this, but what exactly is costing $20 Million a year to keep this project going? The rovers are already there. Does it really cost that much to communicate with these things?

  • marcellus

    This is cool stuff. I like the “Let’s fund it ourselves” concept. If Frasier says “O.K.” I’ll send him a hundred bucks. There’s GOT to be 39,999 other astronomy fans out there that would go along.

  • Silicon.shaman

    $4million.. hell, Bush spent more than that by nearly an order of magnitude on his “re-election” campaign! One of the damn baptists churches was able to raise that in a day for Huckabee…

    Bloody hell people, get your priorities right! This program is a brilliant success, and is producing insights into Mars on an almost daily basis But they cancel it?

    What, is NASA being run by FOX TV network executives now?

    Oh, and for those carping about “what good is it”, how about this:
    ” The understanding of geophysical processes have already contributed to greatly enhancing our ability to understand rock formation, and indirectly, enhance our ability to locate oil.”
    Recent NASA press release

    Stick that in your SUV.

  • Winston

    > Winston, it may be non-productive for
    > you, but what about the pure discovery?

    I have no problem with pure discovery. But do it with private dollars, not my tax dollars, okay?

    If there’s something worthwhile to profit on this, let someone else do the investing, and they can reap the benefits too.

    Mars is simply a vast wasteland that always will be (unless you count the population of Bigfooot there).

    > just stay put, invest in what you already
    > know.

    Investments should have a positive economic impact. How much has been invested? How much benefit has been seen.?

  • Solo

    Do you use a phone to communicate to other parts of the world? Do you watch TV. Do you listen to the weather? Have you ever used Velcro. How was America discovered? Hint: Exploration. Do you drive a car? Do you use resources? Hint: All of these things are made possible because of the space program. Satellites find new resources. Satellites help us observe the weather. Space program is important in national defense. Planetary exploration teaches us much about our own planet. Would it not be interesting to you to find life elsewhere in the universe? It would tell us a lot about ourselves. Settling other worlds in the future is a way to give humans a backup plan in case we screw ourselves here. Many reasons to fund space exploration, you just need to think about it.

    Read Carl Sagan’s insights here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pale_Blue_Dot

    Enough ranting. Seems a waste to turn off a spacecraft after spending all the effort and overcoming all the obstacles to getting there. Many landers never make it. I’m guessing there will be enough pressure to get Spirit back up and running soon.

  • Winston

    Well, it looks like the program will still be funder.

    Solo convinced me (isn’t he that gay guy from Star Trek?). I made a few calls and had them change their minds.

  • von Dawson’s Express

    Come on NASA and USA get yer act together and stop messing about, ‘call this a space programme this is not a space programme its a joke…’ (Apollo-gises to Capt Lockheed). You can afford the $4m laike some one said put Iraq on hold for 20 minutes…

    (thought. Wonder what happend to the NASA project to sell scrap metel that lying around Cape C…..)

  • Adam

    Humans are terrible things.

  • Paul

    I’d rather see the 4 million spent on this than the silly war against WMD’s. Did we ever find those?

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