Top Ten Discoveries of the Mars Rovers

eldavojohn writes "Space.com brings us the top ten discoveries of the Martian rovers that landed there in 2004. They were expected to last three months but, as Slashdot has covered time and time again, they have lasted over three years. From minor discoveries about the formation of Mars to images of atmospheric phenomena, to final and definitive proof of a Mars with water, these two robots have definitely reserved themselves a place in the history books. Pending a dust storm, they may not even be done with their mission yet."

Comments

Greatest discovery

[Joaz Banbeck]

That the best publicity comes from making moderately low predictions of success, then when you exceed them you look heroic.

Re:Greatest discovery

[iamlucky13]

Ok, not to diminish the validity of the "Scotty method" of project estimating, but someone should probably once again join this discussion to clarify this point:

The mission plans called for a minimum of 90 days operations and a certain amount of driving (400 meters IIRC). This was not a prediction of the actual performance, but the criteria for mission success. Less than that would be considered only partially successful.

However, they did expect the rovers to last longer, based on the performance of Pathfinder and Sojourner, and therefore included an operations budget extension of 90 days in the budget. Not exactly a secret. By this time they figured it was about 50/50 whether dust accumulation would have robbed them of too much power or something would've broken, so the budget had an allowance for another extension of 180 days just in case.

At this point, they were pretty sure the rovers would be dead. NASA actually had to get special approval from congress to fund an additional one year of operations funding. Well guess what happened when that year was up. Yep.

So now they've gone 14 times the mission success criteria and 3-1/2 times NASA's best predictions. Opportunity has had a disabled heater on its infrared spectrometer for a while, Spirit has had a dead wheel motor for well over a year, and both of the rock abrasion tools are worn out from so much use, but they're still ticking. Of course, there is a real danger from the dust storm currently enveloping the planet, but I've got my fingers crossed.

sigh...

[djupedal]

If credit is to be tossed around, anthropomorphizing devices such as these tends to ignore the 'real' people that harnessed imagination and creativity so that 'they' could scuttle around another world.

Why the childish urge to conjure up cute little clanking robots instead of simply patting a fellow human being on the back? ...don't answer that, thanks.

Re:sigh...

[macshit]

Not to mention that the robots are cute, and they clank, whereas the humans are odoriferous bags of meat.

Re:top 10

[GodfatherofSoul]

1. No LIFE!!! Stop wasting taxpayer money!!

Yes, lets stop pursuing scientific discoveries and focus our meager resources on invading countries under false pretenses as a proper imperial power should. Books and learning are for hippy surrender monkeys!

In light of recent news this reads like...

[denttford]

Obits for Nerds. Robots that mattered.

Seriously, no band survives the greatest hits album.

Wasting Taxpayer Money?

[Anonymous Coward]

OK, first of all, almost all of the taxes you've paid for the last 10 years have already been spent several times over so we can Spread Democracy and Freedom.

Secondly, NASA engineers managed to create machines that were able to accurately and consistently navigate the surface of Mars safely and efficiently almost entirely on their own.

If anything, I wish NASA got more taxpayer money.

AC

Here's the list without all the clicks

[Anonymous Coward]

10 - Opportunity provides tantalizing glimpse of Victoria crater.
  9 - Evidence of volcanic origin for Gusev crater.
  8 - First meteorite identified on another planet.
  7 - Discover of sulfur suggests Mars stink.
  6 - Helps scientists determine that Mars had three distinct geological eras.
  5 - Martian dust devils captured on film.
  4 - First shot of Earth from distant planet.
  3 - Photographs Earth-like clouds on Mars.
  2 - Helps scientists create first atmospheric temperature profile of Mars.
  1 - First definitive evidence that water flowed on mars, including blueberries, hematite, and silica.

This is cool stuff

[Ekhymosis]

Honestly, this has got to be one of the coolest things in a very long time for NASA. Not only has their multi-million project blown away the three-month lifespan, but the amount of data being recorded has got to be making those NASA scientists and the scientific community cream in their pants on a regular basis. We can learn with greater detail how planets and the galaxies are created, and begin to develop a very crude technical draft for mars colonization. The more data we take, the better the chances that, while probably not in our lifetime, soon enough the first stage of extraterrestrial colonization can be planned and executed. Great stuff!!!

Re:top 10

[Kjella]

The whole Apollo program was made in about 10 years, and in the 38 years since we landed on the moon all things electronic have improved with such incredible speed, going to Mars soon should be a piece of cake right? No. Is it because the GHz processors we have are too weak? No. It's because after that huge effort, and a few more missions until people lost interest, the program basicly shut down. Nobody was looking to invent technology to go even further, nobody was looking for rockets to go longer than geosynch orbit, nothing. We can wait another 50 years but that technology won't invent itself. I say the sooner the better, that way it will be cheaper in 50 years because it's been designed, tested and improved. While I don't think Bush is serious and is only using this as a distraction, I think we'd be able if we were willing.

Missing from the list...

[ZiggyStardust1984]

Decepticons!

Re:Costs

[Rocketship Underpant]

Iraq War: $1,300 billion

ASCII Version of list

[Tablizer]

10 - O crater
9 - .../ \... volcanic
8 - ...*... meteor
7 - ~~~ stink
6 - A..B..C three eras
5 - ...//... dust devils
4 - [ . ] Earth from mars
3 - o@o clouds
2 - ~!~ atmospheric profile
1 - H2O water history

I think the 2 neatests things from a spectator's viewpoint were the dust devil movies and the spherical blueberries. Burn's Cliff was also cool.

The last mission of the rovers...

[Quiet_Desperation]

...should be to hunt down and kill whoever laid out that page for space.com.

Putting the article text in a six line scroll box while 95% of the page is ads or blank should be an offense punishable by being skinned alive.