Idealogian

Speechless

By now I'm sure we've all heard the news that NASA has pretty much lost communication with the Mars rover. In the words of the New York Times:

Mr. Cook said brief beeps from the rover were picked up Wednesday night by the Mars Global Surveyor, which is orbiting the planet and acting as a communications relay station. But the transmission, he noted, "was a random pattern of zeroes and ones," indicating that the rover's radio was on but that its computer was perhaps unable to send anything intelligible for transmission to Earth.

In short, the Spirit seemed to have a voice and power but for some reason was left with nothing to say.

I think the explanation for the lack of communication is pretty clear, based on a fact stated earlier in the article:

With each passing hour and no clear message, concern grew that the mission of the robotic spacecraft might have come to an abrupt end, just as it was getting started, on the 19th day of a planned three-month exploration of Mars's geological history. At the time communication ended, the rover was preparing for another day analyzing its first rock.

If all I'd done for the past 19 days was look at one rock, I'd probably have run out of things to say too.

Also:

The 400-pound, six-wheel Spirit landed on Mars on Jan. 3 and rolled off its lander on Jan. 16.

Am I the only one who didn't realize that the rover was this big?