Remember those two little Rovers they sent to Mars ? The ones that landed like bouncing beach balls and were supposed to last for 90 days ?
Today marks the 10 year anniversary of their launch, and one of them ( Opportunity) is still chugging along, moving across the landscape and doing science, just like when it first got there.
Pretty darned amazing.
Today marks the 10 year anniversary of their launch, and one of them ( Opportunity) is still chugging along, moving across the landscape and doing science, just like when it first got there.
Pretty darned amazing.
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They had it at the library, and it was released right around when they had been up there for 5 years. It's a totally super show, with the ever-funky Steve Squires giving the real lowdown on things.
Spirit was the one that had problems. It got stuck in the sand, and thus could not get to a parking place for the winter where it's solar cells were tilted sufficiently towards the sun to keep it's heaters going.
After 4 1/2 years, it froze to death.
What got to me was the loooong drives they would have to do, out across otherwise uninteresting terrain, in order to get to the next crater of interest.
I think they did one drive that took 2 years.