Goodbye, Spirit. Rest in Peace.

Scientists say goodbye to Spirit rover

It was supposed to roam the surface of Mars for only three months and cover a distance of just a few hundred yards. Instead, NASA's Spirit rover traveled nearly five miles over five years, finding geological evidence that the Red Planet had once been warm and wet enough to have harbored life. Even after it got hopelessly stuck in the powdery soil of Gusev Crater, the rover continued to make discoveries and beamed them to scientists millions of miles away.

But engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Canada Flintridge near downtown Los Angeles sent their final commands to Spirit early Wednesday morning, more than a year after the rover made its last transmission to Earth.

The 7-year-old craft had exhausted its batteries, and its electronic innards had probably been destroyed during the long Martian winter, with temperatures sinking to 175 degrees below zero.