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Mars Rover Reaches Victoria Crater

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the what-a-long-strange-trip-it's-been dept.

gevmage writes, "CNN reports that the 'Opportunity' rover on Mars has reached the Victoria crater. The rovers Spirit and Opportunity arrived on Mars three years ago with planned mission lifetime of 90 days. The rover Spirit is wounded, having only 5 of 6 wheels functioning, and so it's moving quite slowly. However, Opportunity is still going strong and has been trucking towards the massive crater Victoria for almost the past year. Scientists have been hoping that Opportunity would get there so they can have a look at geologically older areas — and it's finally made it!" See the NASA press release for links to photos of the Victoria crater.

2 of 187 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Score one for NASA by nairnr · · Score: 4, Interesting
    I had to laugh when I went to the Mission page. They have the Mission days listed in Sols, as well as the Sols Past Warranty!

    This mission has been such a great success. I think it has fallen off the radar of most people who don't realize that they are still out there. NASA needs some better PR to capitalize on great science. NASA needs credit where credit is due, not for the ISS, but for true exploration.

  2. Pacifist Socialists don't make it to space ... by AHumbleOpinion · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Have you noticed that the countries with the largest militaries are the one's with the most capable space programs? Have you noticed that the countries with socialized medicine and minimal military are not in space, or they largely piggy back on the former? I think things are a bit more complex than you suggest. Now I'm all for greatly increasing NASA's funding, but getting rid of the Pentagon will do more harm to NASA than good. The place to cut the budget is all the damn pork projects that do nothing other than get incumbants re-elected. Some of these are in the Pentagon, but many are outside of it. Pork is one of the few things conservatives and liberals agree on.

    "The most expensive thing in the world is a second-best military establishment, good but not good enough to win."
    Robert A. Heinlein