The Last Dying View Of A Brave Mars Explorer

Years after the sad death of Phoenix, the Mars Rover Spirit has been officially declared dead too. Right before his demise, the brave little robot sent us his last view as his systems powered down forever. This is his last vision.

Spirit got stuck in 2010, after surviving a death scare two years earlier. The wheeled explorer survived years after he was supposed to meet his end. Before him were the slopes of the Columbia Hills. NASA describes the strange mountain with the white top:

The strange hill with the light coloured top, visible near the top centre of the image, has been dubbed von Braun and was a future destination when Spirit got bogged down. A leading hypothesis holds that von Braun is related to martian volcanism.

It never arrived there. The rover team at NASA tried to revive him until last week, but it was all in vain. But fear not, fellow Earthlings, because rover Opportunity is still very much alive, rolling towards the Endeavour Crater at the other side of the red planet. Godspeed little buddy, and sorry about your brother. [NASA]