It wouldn't be just replacing equipment at the ends, you have the repeaters to that would need to be upgraded.

Ok I have heard this a million times now and I just dont see it happening. Cell phones are easily lost, broken, dropped in toilets or stolen. Could you imagine what you would feel if you dropped your pc in the toilet. I can see integrating more tasks into it, but you will still have a need for a base station.

Yes in some areas teachers do make decent money, but in others they make what equates to just above minimum wage. My mother was a teacher in one of these lower paying locations. Growing up we where pretty well on the lower end of lower middle class, where as I had an aunt who taught in one of the higher paying locations and they made out pretty well.

Hold up, if I am not mistaken isnt one of the definitions of engine: A machine that converts energy into mechanical force or motion. So that just leaves drifting with the wind or current. I think a sail might be mutch more practical.

Fairpoint...hmmm how ironic

Prepare for the worst and hope for the best. With projects that cost as much as these and in outer space this reins more true than ever. Over engineer every thing. That is why I am not surprised when these things last past there expected life span. It means the engineers are doing there job.