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| Nasa extends Mars rover lifespan |
| 2005-04-12 |
| The US space agency (Nasa) has approved up to 18 months of further operations for its twin Mars Exploration Rovers. Solar-powered robot geologists Spirit and Opportunity have both found signs of a watery past on Mars since landing on the Red Planet in January 2004. The rovers are showing signs of wear - for example, the teeth on Spirit's rock grinding tool seem to have worn down - but otherwise remain in good shape. They were originally meant to carry out missions lasting just three months... These two rovers have already proven one resounding thing: robots are the future. The next rover in development is almost two meters long. After that I would expect a car-sized rover, followed by construction robots that share a small nuclear reactor. |
| Posted by:Anonymoose |
| #8 Tkat - I just want them to ship back 200 years of natural gas from Jupiter's moons. |
| Posted by: 3dc 2005-04-12 7:06:17 PM |
| #7 look at this prototype of a house printing machine: Whole House Machine Note how NASA is looking at it to print out buildings on the moon. |
| Posted by: 3dc 2005-04-12 7:05:14 PM |
| #6 Endurance Crater is already turning out to be something of a misnomer. Hopefully the next rover teams are learning from this properly, including taking into consideration the possibility that we might want these machines to continue running until humans get there. |
| Posted by: Dishman 2005-04-12 2:54:13 PM |
| #5 I want to get a hand-made atomizer shipped back! |
| Posted by: Tkat 2005-04-12 1:56:05 PM |
| #4 |
| Posted by: Chuck Simmins 2005-04-12 1:49:55 PM |
| #3 Robert: I, for one, will welcome our new robot Martian overlords. |
| Posted by: Carl in N.H. 2005-04-12 12:55:09 PM |
| #2 Eventually, of course, Mars will be populated by the descendants of our rovers. They'll look back at Earth and wonder how anything could live on that wet, hot ball. |
| Posted by: Robert Crawford 2005-04-12 12:21:38 PM |
| #1 JPL Mars Rover Site
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| Posted by: BigEd 2005-04-12 12:11:16 PM |
