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| Science |
| Mars Rovers Powering On After 5 years |
| 2009-03-28 |
| 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 |
| #12 Enough of the robots. I want boots on the ground. |
| Posted by: Mizzou Mafia 2009-03-28 19:56 |
| #11 Frankly (can I say that?) the dood with the sponge really helped a lot. Srsly. |
| Posted by: Spirit 2009-03-28 15:09 |
| #10 When maintenance is impossible, it's always best to over-engineer. That's why the Rovers are still operating, and why, if they could get enough power from their solar cells, we'd still be hearing from the Pioneer spacecraft. BTW, NONE of these were built by NASA - the equipment was contracted for. Lockheed-Martin, Boeing, General Dynamics, and a half-dozen other firms all contributed to their construction. |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2009-03-28 14:50 |
| #9 Apparently, it is the will of Allah that the accursed infidels drive Space Roombas all over Mars while His people spend their days here on Earth blowing each other up. |
| Posted by: SteveS 2009-03-28 14:37 |
| #8 as I recall, my '72 Datsun 510 had a ballast resistor as well. Yep, when it died, the car died |
| Posted by: Frank G 2009-03-28 14:00 |
| #7 I received very good service from the Chrysler products I owned. They used to have what was called a 'ballast resistor' under the hood. It was always good to have a spare in the glove box. When the ballast resistor went out, your default was leather Cadillacs. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2009-03-28 12:41 |
| #6 I ownnd a 1965 Dodge slant 6 straight shift power nothing bought used for $300 that gave me 850.000 miles and was still running, (Smoked and missed, needed a valve job) when I gave it away.(NOT a misprint) Can't kill a slant 6, damn good engineering there. |
| Posted by: Redneck Jim 2009-03-28 11:19 |
| #5 They do. It's just that the marketers and finance types are in charge. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2009-03-28 11:18 |
| #4 The twins were primed for a brief 3-month mission... If GM and Chrysler had engineers and builders who could make stuff that went as far and beyond warranty like this .... |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2009-03-28 08:56 |
| #3 Good one, NASA. Damn good. |
| Posted by: Mike 2009-03-28 08:22 |
| #2 Phenomenal. The Us aspires to reach out into the heavens, and achieves it, whilst so much of the rest of the world expends its energies mired in retrogressive envy politics and/or fighting on behalf of pernicious superstitious nonsense. Lets hope Obama et al don't achieve their objectives and make even the US incapable of this sort of enterprise in future. |
| Posted by: Bulldog 2009-03-28 07:15 |
| #1 ION RIAN > LINK BETWEEN GLOBAL DIMMING AND WARMING BAFFLES SCIENTISTS [espec EURO-Perts]. The bad news is that some Brit Perts say continued GLOBAL DIMMING may kill us all - THE GOOD NEWS IS THAT SWISS PERTS [read, BIKINI TEAM Geezer Dads]SAY "GLOBAL BRIGHTENING" HAS BEGUN AND COULD KILL US ALL. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2009-03-28 02:14 |