Absolutely NOTHING sad about this. The rover lasted 29 times longer than originally expected, and traveled nearly 13 times further than we thought she would. Every extra sol of operations was a bonus of science return that we never really expected. We are not having a funeral - we will be having a full blown Irish Wake celebration of the successes of this wonderful machine and the enormous science return she provided. The greatest message provided by Spirit is the inspiration to continue exploration of Mars, and to seek out the unknown.
I look forward to the day a human is able to go to Mars and recover these robots.
One of my friends knows one of the project managers of these robots and this is a statement the project manager made on Facebook.
Opinions?
Bring them home...
or
Leave them as future monuments...
The anthropomorphism crowds online are obviously for rescue missions. I think it'd be cool to eventually utilize them as monuments if humanity ever expands to other planets.
Mars - the only planet inhabited solely by robots.