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Mars Rovers Powering On After 5 years
In January 2004, NASA landed two identical robotic rovers named Spirit and Opportunity on the surface of Mars. The twins were primed for a brief 3-month mission to tell us a story of water and possibly life itself in the planet's past.More than five years later, the dynamic duo are still roving the Red Planet, engaged in a saga of overachievement that has transformed Mars exploration. "Spirit and Opportunity helped invent a whole new discipline - robotic field science," says Steve Squyres, principal investigator for the Mars Exploration Rover Mission. "They've taught us how to organize large teams of scientists and engineers to operate robotic rovers on a distant planet. We all had to learn to work together effectively year after year to squeeze the most possible science from the rovers." The teams are still squeezing. Posted by: 3dc 2009-03-28 |
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