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Long-lived Mars Rovers to Keep on Roving
An anonymous reader writes with a link to a ComputerWorld article about the ongoing saga of the Martian rovers. They've overcome amazing obstacles and they show no signs of shutting down any time soon. "'After more than three and a half years, Spirit and Opportunity are showing some signs of aging, but they are in good health and capable of conducting great science,' John Callas, rover project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory said in a statement. Since landing, the rovers have had to surmount a host of technical issues. Just a few weeks after landing, the Spirit rover had an out-of-memory problem that almost ended its mission before it began, but scientists were able to get the rover back into operation. In April 2004, both needed software updates to correct problems and improve their performance."
OK.... are we SURE that these things weren't made in Japan?
Cause they're acting more like a Honda than a GM at this point.
How long would a rover that was actually designed to last for three years keep on working?
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
I see you've never had your scrotum pinched between the wheels of... uhh, never mind... I didn't say that. Nope, neither have I...
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
sheesh.
P.P.S. I'm doing Science and I'm still alive.
Aliens. Their superior Martian technology is the only reasonable explanation for the rover's continued success.
Sigs are for Terrorists.
you are so right, these rovers are a testament to the rover team's diligence and sheer hard work. Think about it, they have sent two rovers to another planet which have had quite a few adventures and advanced mankind's understanding of Mars considerably. What have we done at work today? :-) You know what I mean though?
This project must have had a hundred million managers and task teams!
Seriously!
If you don't know what AltaVista is (was), get off my lawn.
That's the fun part of being an engineer - you get booed when things fail short of their predicted lifetime. But when you screw up your predictions the other way and underestimate the lifetime... suddenly, you are a hero. No wonder engineers are inclined to be conservative.
Welcome to the world of real science - where data collection takes years, and data analysis takes decades. It's also a world most activities are painfully slow and/or boring and things don't happen at any great rate, and that simply isn't very exciting.
This isn't Mythbusters where everything is dumbed down, sexed up, and edited to a pace suitable for the short attention span of the post-MTV generation.
And what else would we want from an AMERICAN space agency? Yeeeeee-haw! [shoots guns in air and rides off into sunset]