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NASA Extends Rover Occupation of Mars
iocat writes "Reuters reporting that NASA is extending the Rover missions on Mars by another five months. However, they point out that while the rovers look poised to greatly exceed their planned life cycle, they could basically die at any time. Still, it will be cool to see a little more exploration."
Unmanned missions are great. Humans can run out of food and air, and get tired and homesick. Robots can run basically forever, until something breaks or they run out of juice. If these things prove 1/50 as durable as Galileo did, they'll provide science more than we ever could have hoped for.
Hoist Number One and Number Six.
wouldn't it make sense to initially plan the mission for as long as the rovers remain operational, however long that may be?
Stupid people make stupid things profitable.
I expect at least part of the reason is because it is inexpensive. According to the Reuters report, "NASA said it would spend $15 million more to keep the rivers exploring the planet's surface through September." Can you think of a more cost-effective way for NASA to spend that money?
Only Women Bleed (Sex, Sharia remix)
Unmanned missions are great.
So Are manned ones in the right context like Mars.
Humans can run out of food and air, and get tired and homesick.
On Mars humans can make their own air water and food provided a power source like a portable nuclear reactor and the air and ground around them. It's called living in-situ. As long as you don't send flakes, the homesickness isn't an issue. They're allowed to sleep and would have more waking time than the rovers so I wouldn't worry about them getting "tired".
Robots can run basically forever, until something breaks or they run out of juice.
You just contradicted yourself there.
If these things prove 1/50 as durable as Galileo did, they'll provide science more than we ever could have hoped for.
Perhaps but humans on the surface would have been able to work faster and smarter these probes. Galileo was well suited to its mission and a human would not have been. In the case of Mars, humans are much better suited.
Blaze a trail to the New World
Every day or so, I head over to this site to check out the latest images. Some of the high-res color photos look like something I could have shot with my digital camera out in the desert somewhere, but then I remember: they were taken on ANOTHER FREAKING PLANET. It really is a amazing thing to be alive to see. The folks at NASA and the JPL should be proud of themselves.