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Mars Rover, Spirit, Turns 4

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the bouncing-happily-among-the-rocks dept.

Brandee07 writes "Designed for a 90 day mission, the Spirit Mars Rover is starting its 4th year of exploration. Spirit's sister-module, Opportunity, will turn four on Jan 25. 'We never thought we'd still be driving these robots all over Mars,' said Mark Lemmon, a planetary scientist at Texas A&M University and member of the rover science team. 'We joked about driving Opportunity into Victoria Crater, but now we're there, and we're looking at doing even more science. Each day they still work is an amazing one.'"

2 of 149 comments (clear)

  1. 90 days? Pah! by InvisblePinkUnicorn · · Score: 0, Troll

    It's obvious the technicians and scientists responsible for the rovers were interested in only one thing: keeping their jobs (and fame). So, they claimed the mission was only for 90 days, but made the rovers so tough and resilient as to give them (and their creators' careers) indefinite lifespans. Right as NASA is about to cut the budget, there will surely be some major discovery on Mars, and later one of the rovers will get into some difficult situation that will be overcome heroically by staff 10 days shy of being let go.

  2. Re:fdadgaffddfa by Marcos+Eliziario · · Score: 0, Troll

    Man. Go back to your heroin.

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