Slashdot Mirror
Mars Rover Opportunity Turns 8
New submitter el borak writes
"Never mind all the talk about the revival of the American auto industry. What may be the greatest car the U.S. has ever built is currently a tidy 78 million miles (125m km) away from this world — resting on the edge of Endeavour crater in the southern hemisphere of Mars. It was on January 25, 2004 that the rover Opportunity bounced down on Mars for a mission designed to last a minimum of three months and a maximum of just a year or two."
Can you remember the last piece of technology hardware you had which outlived its warranty? For me, most of that was stuff made in the 80's.
Considerable accomplishment, designing, accumulating all the bits, assembling it, putting it in a rocket, flying it to Mars, landing it and having it muck about in a place without AAA Roadside Service. Well done.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Those engineers have already been honored the American way, their jobs were outsourced.
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - Evelyn Beatrice Hall, re Voltaire
A break-in period that consisted of being shipped slowly on a ship compared to a violent launch on the top of a rocket, as well as the re-entry into the atmosphere of a largely mysterious planet, and finally the potentially violent landing.
Then, once in use and with the odometer actually ticking up, the Mercedes gets an oil change every few thousand miles, or every few months; it's also refueled probably every other week, at least. And it's probably not in a hostile environment the entirety of its driven life, at least without serious repair assistance.
So, yes, we really should be proud of the Opportunity for lasting for eight years while 78 million miles from a repair shop.
Estimates were based on experience with the earlier Sojourner rover. Opportunity got lucky in that every now and then whirlwinds clean off the solar panels. This phenom was not known at the time, at least with solar panels.
And the wheels and joints have become creaky and are gradually failing. Work-arounds and adjustments to behavior have allowed it to continue. Thus, the equipment is failing, as expected. Luck and ingenuity in work-arounds should not normally be relied on for engineering duration estimates. Further, the grinder teeth have worn down and the rover is basically gumming rocks, or just brushing rocks instead of grinding.
Table-ized A.I.
Which is strange, because during his interview he kept stressing to them that he was "just good enough" for the job.