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Mars Rovers Celebrate Their 1000th Sol On Mars

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the go-little-buddies-go dept.

Cherita Chen writes, "Yesterday NASA, Cornell University, and the USGS celebrated the Mars Exploration Rovers' 1000th Sol on the Red Planet. The first rover to land, Spirit, reached the 1000 Sol mark a few weeks ago while the planet was in Solar conjunction. 'Opportunity,' Spirit's twin, and the second lander to make the bounce to Mars, celebrated the milestone yesterday while sitting atop Victoria Crater on the other side of Mars. Both Rovers are still operational (though Spirit is limping) and are sending back valuable data. Not bad for what was slated to be a '90 Sol' mission."

9 of 102 comments (clear)

  1. Come On. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Admit it, you're getting misty.

  2. Wait a minute... by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 2, Funny

    So when did the Rovers pick up a Soul Cube?

  3. Re:Silly Jargon by DJ.Flecktarn · · Score: 3, Funny

    Because martians don't speak english.

    --
    I see nothing wrong with five meals a day
  4. Re:Sol2k "bug" by Rosco+P.+Coltrane · · Score: 2, Funny

    Our directory structure contained a 3-digit sol number, and a lot of calculations were carried out using only the first 999 sols, including some code I wrote (knowing this to be the case).

    John, I told you not to use COBOL in the rovers. You're so fired...
    ---
    Your boss

    --
    "A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
  5. Mars-Ride! by thewiz · · Score: 2, Funny

    Rollin', rollin', rollin' ?Rollin', rollin', rollin' ?Rollin', rollin', rollin' ?Rollin', rollin', rollin' ?Mars-Ride! ??Rollin', rollin', rollin' ?Though the water's frozen ?Keep them rovers rollin' ?Mars-Ride! ?Dust and wind and weather ?Hell-bent for leather ?Wishin' my pal was by my side. ?All the things I'm missin', ?History is waitin', ?Waiting at the end of our ride ??CHORUS ?Move 'em on, head 'em up ?Head 'em up, move 'em on ?Move 'em on, head 'em up ?Mars-Ride ?RAT 'em out, RAT 'em in, ?RAT 'em in, RAT 'em out, ?Count 'em up, Sort 'em out ?Mars-Ride! ??Keep movin', movin', movin' ?Though they're agin' ?Keep them rovers movin' ?Mars-Ride! ?Don't try to understand 'em ?Just RAT, photo, and sand 'em ?Soon we'll be living high and wide. ?My CPUs calculatin' ?History will be waitin', ?Be waitin' at the end of our ride. ??Mars-Ride! ?Mars-Ride! ?

    --
    If "disco" means "I learn" in Latin, does "discothèque" mean "I learn technology"?
  6. Ah but... by Salsaman · · Score: 3, Funny

    are those metric Sols or Imperial Sols ;-)

    Anyway, congratulations NASA !

  7. Re:Spirit has stayed busy at Winter Haven during.. by Headcase88 · · Score: 2, Funny

    Maybe this /. story could do with 4 or 5 less FAs. Everyone knows that us /.ers have the sterotype of having too busy a social life to read through this many articles :)

    --
    "When the atomic bomb goes off there's devastation...but when the atomic bong goes off there's celebraaaaation!"
  8. Well...it would be better if... by scuba_steve_1 · · Score: 3, Funny

    ...Spirit's attitude improved:

    http://www.theonion.com/content/node/54360

    Seriously, the last message that it sent ('OVERPRICED SPACE-ROOMBA AWAITING MORE BULLSHIT ORDERS') was really uncalled for.

  9. Re:Silly Jargon by exp(pi*sqrt(163)) · · Score: 4, Funny

    You mean like:

    using namespace Mars {
            "On the fifth day of their missions the Shock and Awe probes on Mars are doing fine. Shock is current exploring the northern polar cap and Awe is..."
    }

    using namespace Venus {
            "As we approach half way through Harsh Questioning's first day on Venus it has just circled successfully around a pool of molten lead..."
    }

    Yeah, that might work.

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