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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
why is that? Did it try to escape or something?
Incremental costs of running them must be a bargain. Great to see how well these things were made.
500GB of disk, 5TB of transfer, $5.95/mo
Shame that our British version was ever so slightly less successful. *Sobs*
"This image is from the rover's rear hazard-avoidance camera"
What, are they worried about something sneaking up on it from behind?
-S
--- What parts of "shall make no law", "shall not be infringed", and "shall not be violated" don't you understand?
I like both rovers. :)
But I think they get more funding because of "to moon, _mars_ and beyond" thing. If NASA want to fulfill this goal, then must gather as much information as possible about Mars.
I like idea of human presence on Moon and Mars, but not for price of cutting other succesful projects like Voyager.
What modern Obelix would say today? Of course, "Those crazy Americans!".
To improve lubrication the rovers have been driving backwards a lot of times lately. I remember they started doing this when one of the front wheels of the Spirit rover started to show more friction. After driving in reverse the friction became less.
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."
... the robots are frigging DRUNK!
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'03 Spirit Rover
odometer: 0000003 miles
abrasion tool slightly dulled
slight steering problem
needs a good buff
runs great!
Asking $15,000,000 OBO
Voyager is only useless if you don't care about finding out what it the extra "pull" the probes are experiencing is real or not. You know, the dark matter thing?
- These characters were randomly selected.
Frankly, Voyager is useless now
Useless?
"For the past two years or so, Voyager 1 has detected phenomena unlike any encountered before in all its years of exploration. These observations and what they may infer about the approach to the termination shock have been the subject of on-going scientific debates. While some of the scientist believed that the passage past the termination shock had already begun, some of the phenomena observed were not what would have been expected. So the debate continues while even more data are being returned and analyzed."
Dogma - "let's just say we'd like to avoid any empirical entanglements."