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Mars Rovers' Mission Extended Another Six Months

Posted by timothy on from the going-and-going dept.

what_the_frell writes "Looks like the Mars rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, will be online and in use for at least another six months, after surviving the lowest point of the Martian year, in terms of sunlight. New Scientist has a fascinating article on this and some of the other hurdles the rovers have tackled. It's pretty cool how the rovers have far exceeded their initial 30-day mission (today is Day 263), and that their new projected mission is now well over 365 days."

2 of 23 comments (clear)

  1. Expectation managment by HaiLHaiL · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Is this really just a case of expectation management? NASA says "the rovers will last 30 days," to cover their asses if some unknown factor takes them down far sooner than the hardware could manage? Then when they last longer, NASA can do some gloating? Not that it's malevolent, but did the rover engineers really expect them to only last 30 days?

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    1. Re:Expectation managment by Tablizer · · Score: 2, Insightful

      IIRC, some of the contractors who built them are not fully paid unless related subsystems last at least until the "warrantee period" is up. Thus, the warrantee periods are not (just) political boundaries.

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