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Spirit Rover is One Year Old

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the happy-birthday-to-you dept.

dolphin558 writes "The little rover that could, did. The Spirit Rover marks its one year aniversary after an expected lifetime of just 3 months. It has traversed more than 2 miles of Martian landscape and sent back thousands of pictures and reams of data. There is no indication that it will die anytime soon as it climbs the Columbia Hills."

13 of 347 comments (clear)

  1. maintenance by confusion · · Score: 5, Funny
    It certainly helps when you have friendly Martians maintaining it.

    I'm glad to see that we've gotten our money's worth on this one.

    Jerry
    http://www.syslog.org/

    1. Re:maintenance by zrk · · Score: 2, Funny

      Yeah, I've heard it found the local Mar(s)Bucks, and recently visited a Jiffy Zoob for an oil change...

    2. Re:maintenance by Iphtashu+Fitz · · Score: 4, Funny

      Reminds me of a tv commercial I saw a while ago. I forget what the product was for but the commercial showed a lone scientist sitting in front of a huge video monitor in a NASA-style control room. On the monitor was the rover. The scientest turned his head for a minute and when he looked back at the screen the rover was up on cinder blocks, it's wheels were gone, and it had been vandalized in one or two other ways. Finally, conclusive proof of intelligent(?) life on Mars!

  2. Always focusing on one... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    When will the Opportunity rover get some love? It's the twin that gets swept under the rug and left behind while Spirit gets all the attention...

  3. Sure they do by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    The rover just dont drive like you.

  4. Re:Only one *Earth* year by dj245 · · Score: 4, Funny
    But given that it's on Mars (686.98 Earth days to complete one solar revolution), its actual Martian anniversary will come November 19th, 2005.

    Its now a child of both planets, and just like the child of divorced parents, it has to celebrate all the holidays everywhere.

    --
    Even those who arrange and design shrubberies are under considerable economic stress at this period in history.
  5. Re:Great! Keep the Spacemen at Home by simcop2387 · · Score: 2, Funny

    yes and dont forget KEEP the telephone sanatizers, they may one day save our lives!

  6. 9 months over your estimate? by Valar · · Score: 5, Funny

    Someone must be held accountable! In order to maintain the proud, bureaucratic tradition of post-apollo NASA we must fire the engineers responsible. Do you have any idea how many man hours have been wasted trying to operate a rover that should have been dead months ago?

    --

    ====
    Crudely Drawn Games
  7. Re:Great! Keep the Spacemen at Home by R2.0 · · Score: 3, Funny

    "Overlapping functions, semi-autonomy, semi-intelligent bots that are able to function together for a common goal. "

    Like getting revenge on those bastards that sent them there?

    I, for one, welcome our future Martian robotic overlords.

    --
    "As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly." A. Carlson
  8. Beats the shit out of my Mitsubishi Galant by gelfling · · Score: 4, Funny

    In terms of years operating and miles run. Whatever these people did, we need to bottle it, pronto.

  9. Re:Happy Birthday! by escher · · Score: 2, Funny

    Hey, give that dirt a break. When 200 billion years old you reach, look as good you will not.

  10. Re:The sounds of Mars by __aamcgs2220 · · Score: 2, Funny

    They've been recording that stuff for years, man! You could download it all until the RIAA found out... Now you can't get them or "Happy Birthday" anymore. :-(

  11. Re:E(X) = 3 months... really? by PedanticSpellingTrol · · Score: 2, Funny
    "Mr Scott, do you always multiply your repair estimates by a factor of four?"

    "Of course captain, how else could I keep my reputation as a miracle worker?"