Write an epitaph for MarsPhoenix

Peter G. 31 Oct, 2008 at 3:48pm ET Article published in Tech

Wired is having a contest to write an epitaph for everyone’s favorite Twitter friend, MarsPhoenix. The spunky martian lander has been keeping net-savvy Twitter users informed about its various escapades for months, but as the cold Mars winter approaches, it’ll have to shut down. Solar cells and batteries can’t provide enough juice to keep the little bugger going so one of these days, MarsPhoenix will fall silent.

There is hope though. Something called the Lazarus mode on-board the tiny traveler could potentially restart it after the long winter has passed. We’ll keep our fingers crossed.

Comments

31 Oct 2008 ~ 8:12pm Thrax I twittered:

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light
1 Nov 2008 ~ 10:19am drasnor I'd give it even odds for survival. With the heaters off for the winter it's vulnerable to thermal cycling and extremes of cold but if the hardware physically survives and the batteries don't burst it'll be back in the spring.

-drasnor
1 Nov 2008 ~ 9:05pm the_technocrat Gone forth from their home they have
Weary bots find their rest
Sleep well, friends
3 Nov 2008 ~ 12:53pm BuddyJ Hope it doesn't have an NVIDIA gpu. The thermal cycling could kill it