I get the JPL news alerts. They frequently have to do with the Mars Rovers Spirit and Opportunity.
Today they reported that Spirit is having some difficulties. The full text is here, but here is a quote:
On Monday, Spirit’s controllers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., chose to command the rover on Tuesday, Sol 1802, to find the sun with its camera in order to precisely determine its orientation. Not knowing its orientation could have been one possible explanation for Spirit not doing its weekend drive. Early Tuesday, Spirit reported that it had tried to follow the commands, but had not located the sun.
That last line strikes me as the plaintive cry of a distressed robot. “I tried!”
There’s a story in there somewhere. Feel free to steal it from me.
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