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Mars Rover Spirit Down a Wheel
riflemann writes "NASA is reporting that two years into its 90-day mission, Spirit has lost one wheel and is now running on five wheels, dragging the broken wheel. With this reduced mobiity, the rover still needs to make its way to a slope where it can catch enough sun over the Martian winter to keep it operating. 'Even though the rovers are well past their original design life, they still have plenty of capability to conduct outstanding science on Mars.', says project leader Dr. John Callas."
I've had worse.
now we have interstellar tricycles?
That's what happens when you only test the wheels for 9 days.
Badass Resumes
I still believe both rovers will be alive
when and if Vista is ever released.
You are being MICROattacked, from various angles, in a SOFT manner.
Aha, but will they still be functioning when Duke Nukem Forever gets released? I mean, 2514AD is a long ways away!
I don't think their hardware meet Vista's specs.
If a dog can walk on two legs you better hope this thing keeps going, otherwise it's pretty embarassing.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=OZqVvYkCe68
The NASA engineers always triumph!
Martian1: It broke it's leg. I say we shoot it and put it out of it's misery.
Martian2: nah. It seems to have such a drive for life.
OS Software is like love: The best way to make it grow is to give it away.
Sure, they can provide transport - one way - and there is that little niggling problem with orbit insertion and parachute deployment that sometimes crop up... :)
Oh well, what the hell...
Hmmm, typical NASA project, 21 months late and far over budget. :)
Oh well, what the hell...
A sense of triumph swept our fair red world today when reports came in that the Grand Army of the Council had damaged one of the robotic invaders from the evil blue planet. K'Breel, speaker for the Council of Elders, made the following comment:
When a journalist suggested that the terrible monstrosity had merely worn out one of its locomotive rotators, K'Breel had the traitor's gelsac mutilated immediately.
Apologies to TripMaster Monkey.
100 mile free towing too!
They made Spirit and Opportunity do some battlebot stuff. And well, Spirit is a puss.
It is no longer uncommon to be uncommon.
Sure, they can provide transport - one way - and there is that little niggling problem with orbit insertion and parachute deployment that sometimes crop up... :)
In other words, they'll use a large trebuchet to get you there (or somewhere... either way, it will be fun!)
"If anything can go wrong, it will." - Murphy
Didn't HAL (or Dave Bowman, or whomever the aliens were) tell us, "ALL THESE WORLDS ARE YOURS EXCEPT EUROPA. ATTEMPT NO LANDINGS THERE."?
This little guy seems to make it on his own just fine on one leg. Although, admittedly, he'll prob'bly never take him a wife.
Hopefully at the next Pit Stop the guys that are wiping down the solar panels will also jack it up and change out the wheel.
Ten seconds! Go!
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Scotty: 8 weeks, sir
Kirk: Mr Scott I-
Scotty: But you don't have 8 weeks, so I'll do it for you in 2
Kirk: Mr Scott, have you always multiplied your repair estimates by a factor of four?
Scotty: Of course, Admiral, how else can I keep my reputation as a Miracle Worker?
Kirk: Your reputation is secure, Mr Scott.
If I recall, this dialoge was in ST:3, but I'm not sure of that.
"He may be mad, but there's method in his madness. [...] It's what drives men mad, being methodical." G.K.Chesterton
though pain it does not feel.
Now it limps along the Martian soil,
alone in a great vastness of red sand and rocks.
I hope it reaches the top of the slope,
else alas for naught will it toil.
For in that vast desert there's no telephone box.
Nor much chance for hope.
Like the injured lone explorer,
Oh! What a horror!
it will suffer its demise,
Alone on that alien world,
Its nearest neighbor far away,
as no one hears its cries.
The wrath of Mars is unfurled,
And there alone will it lay.
It's remarkable how much longer these guys have still been alive even after they already completed their originally planned goals. Here's one thing that NASA did right.
What are you talking about? Their projections were WRONG by an order of magnitude. They should all be fired for failing to predict the life-span of these rovers accurately.
Information wants to be anthropomorphized.
One wheel dragging huh? Must be that the Mars rovers are manufactured by the same company that make the shopping carts for Walmart.
Well, future rovers could carry around little Roombas to run around and vacuum off the top of their solar cells.
"NASA is reporting that two years into its 90-day mission"
Talk about overtime, you think the rover gets time and a half now?