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Mars Rovers Get Extra 18 Months
iamlucky13 writes "NASA has stated in the latest mission press release that funding for an additional 18 months of exploration has been approved. The rovers have breezed through 14 months of operation so far, and the money will cover expenses through September of 2006. The rovers are still operating well, and recently both experienced dramatic power boosts from their solar cells. They are no longer like new, however. Opportunity has recently experienced data loss from one of its spectrometers, while Spirit has a smudged camera lens, a heavily used rock abrasion tool, and has previously struggled with intermittent steering issues."
At least SOMETHING is getting enough funding in NASA.
No boom today. Boom tomorrow. There's always a boom tomorrow. - Cmdr. Susan Ivanova
Shame that our British version was ever so slightly less successful. *Sobs*
NASA gets it right.
These things have dramaticly outlived their projected lifetimes, while their british counterpart didn't even survive to the first day.
Nurmerous other probes and exploration devices have been lost over the years...
Glad they done it. And they deserve all the credit for successfully pulling off such a difficult task.
This and successfull space flights by private industry has rekindled my hope in being able to visit space and the moon... and possibly mars, within my lifetime.
Perhaps we are getting back to the good old days of NASA. You just cannot go cheap on space/planet exploration. Look at the original Pioneer probes, these things might just run forever, they were overengineered for the task from the get go. After all of the recent shuttle and probe failures, I'm glad NASA is getting more than they paid for on this one. Space exploration shoud ensure the future of the human race.........
K
Frankly, Voyager is useless now, and money used to fund that project could be going to more worthwhile projects like the JPL rovers. The Voyager project was never meant to measure data outside of the solar system, but rather to gather data on the gas giants and outer planets. They accomplished that a long time ago.
Yes, but tell me, when is the next time we'll have a probe that far out in say, oh, the next 20-30 years?? While we're out there and it's sending data we might as well gather it. All data is new data that can be used. And as for "the original mission", don't forget the rovers were only supposed to be for about 90 days and look how much they've done.
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"And may your days be long upon the earth."
Incremental costs of running them must be a bargain. Great to see how well these things were made.
One can basically say the same about the Voyager probes. But that doesn't seem to have saved them from being eyed for downsizing.
--LordPixie
I don't like the idea of scraping Voyager too, but if we really get to the Mars the amount of technology developed and overall advancement of space exploration would make another long distance probes more likely than not.
In other words, if we go to the Mars we may some day go beyond our system but if we don't then surely not.