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Opportunity Rover Encounters Its Own Heat Shield

Posted by timothy on from the like-a-shadow-of-its-former-self dept.

blamanj writes "Mars Rover Opportunity, a few meters shy of the 2km mark on its odometer, has come across the remains of the heat shield from its landing. This map traces the path of the rover for the past 11 months. It's been averaging about 6 meters/sol. Spirit, which had to stop to dislodge a rock, is still climbing the "Columbia Hills". It's tough going, and Spirit experiences slippage of up to 80% as it climbs the hills."

1 of 269 comments (clear)

  1. Re:how far away is Beagle 2? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It's quite far away. Keeping in mind that the entire distance the rover has traveled is about 2km, if the beagle probe was only 10km away (really, really, really close in planetary terms), it would still most likely be "out of reach". And even if we could get to it, what would we do? Poke at it with the rock abrasion tool?