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Mars Rover Opportunity Working Free
VernonNemitz writes "As previously reported, the Mars rover Opportunity ran into more sand (or finer material) than it was designed to handle. While initial attempts to escape may not have accomplished much, the most recent efforts seem to imply that the plucky machine is going to succeed at getting away."
Clamped by Martians.
This is the obligatory middle so they can post a story tomorrow about how it is totally stuck again.
Frylock: "We should have cloned twenties, Jackson wouldn't have given a fuck."
"I guess ... 7.4 centimetres is better than nothing"
Yeah, that's what your girlfriend said!!!
It was easy, they just had to tell it that it could see R2D2 at the local cinema.
lexbaby
"Be Brave, Be Loyal, Be True." -- Hawkeye Pierce
Am I the only one who thinks NASA / JPL needs to outsource the next rovers to a Monster Garage* build team?
*Monster Garage is a reality show on The Discovery Channel in which a team of professional and hobbyist mechanics build a vehicle related contraption in 5 days.
On Opportunity's first three drives to get out of the sand trap, the rover has advanced a total of 7.4 centimeters (2.9 inches) in getting off the dune.
With any luck, it'll make par and really show that Tiger Woods a thing or two.
Where does the school board find them and why do they keep sending them to ME?
They should have packed a trunk monkey on the rover. Even if he could only hold his breath for 30 seconds, he would have plenty of time to pull the rover out and still be able to squeegie the solar panels clean.
I Am My Own Worst Enemy
Just do like Homer and drive off with the clamp/boot still attached to the tire.
Maybe it's becuse it's a Friday afternoon following a long week... but wouldn't it be fun to sneak up to Mars and plays some jokes on the JPL guys? Wait for them to go to bed each night and move the rover 10 feet.
Is it time to go home yet?
Oh great! There goes the economy! If they're working free it's going to lower the bar on wages for the rest of us! How's a guy supposed to afford a gold-plated Ferrari when the rovers are working free?
Customer: "help, im stuck in a sand dune"
OnStar: "ok, you seem to be off our GPS grid for some reason, can you tell me where you are?"
Customer: "mars"
OnStar: "......."
Customer: "hello?"
OnStar: "just, uh, keep spinning your tires..."
--Idiots, Every single one of YOU, A flaming mass of conglomerated morons, hey wait a second, isnt that how RAID works?
Actually it turns out there was a confusion in the units.
The specifications committee set a working lifespan of 100 days, and the design team thought they meant fortnights.
Ob. Simpsons reference....
Bart: Don't you mean shining?
Willy: Shh. D'ya wanna get suuuued?
Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.
Hey zplork, looks like that funny car has a problem again.
What, solar panels dirty again? We just cleaned them last week!
Naw, it's stuck in the sand.
Fuggit - let AAA* take car of it!
(*AAA - Aries Automobile Association).
www.eFax.com are spammers
Trying to make fun of someone on slashdot by mentioning he has a girlfriend?
I think you should reconcider this course of action...
No, the rover team included Trekkies who knew they were communicating between Mars and Earth over an open channel, so they used standard code to describe time units in case Khan was listening. In accordance with Starfleet regs and all.
The only reason that it took so long was because the NASA team, cautious as they were, were spending their time recreating possible scenarios in an oversized sandbox with an Opportunity replica, and trying them out.
And I suppose that making all of those "rumm rummm" noises was science too, hmm?
You mean:
"watch that mother burn silicon dioxide", which is in fact 'burnt' already, and wouldn't burn any more in the thin martian atmosphere.
Sorry for sucking the fun out of that one...
-=test-sig_0.1.5(NoWhitespaceVersion)=-
Neither, it seems. We will have to add another one... "Free as in Mars Rover".