Mars Rover Reaches Victoria Crater

gevmage writes, "CNN reports that the 'Opportunity' rover on Mars has reached the Victoria crater. The rovers Spirit and Opportunity arrived on Mars three years ago with planned mission lifetime of 90 days. The rover Spirit is wounded, having only 5 of 6 wheels functioning, and so it's moving quite slowly. However, Opportunity is still going strong and has been trucking towards the massive crater Victoria for almost the past year. Scientists have been hoping that Opportunity would get there so they can have a look at geologically older areas — and it's finally made it!" See the NASA press release for links to photos of the Victoria crater.

Events such as this restore my faith in Humanity

[arcite]

Space really is the final frontier. News stories like this never cease to brighten up my day, and give me hope for the future. Not to sound too corny, but do others find this is true?

Re:Events such as this restore my faith in Humanit

[exley]

Honestly not trying to troll, but no, sorry, this does not restore my faith in humanity at all. Unfortunately, there are far too many things happening every day (take the recent school shooting in Colorado, for instance) to continually keep my faith in humanity pretty much nonexistant.

And while our exploration of space at this point does have practical applications for current-day life, a lot of it is also just a "cool, let's see what we can learn" sort of thing. Which, again, is of use both today as well as in the future. But with the way things are going here on Earth right now (The environment, anyone? Wars? Etc.), who knows if we'll ever really be able to put a lot of our knowledge from space exploration to full use and truly reach the final frontier.

Re:

[susano_otter]

Please keep your particular brand of emo out of the voting booths, thanks.

Re:

[exley]

How very democratic of you. At least you were only modded "funny" and not "insightful." Ever stop to think that so-called "pessimists" might actually be motivated to seek change in things that they feel are fucked up? Viewing things in a negative light is not equivalent to giving up.

WHat?

[geekoid]

Despite out ability to do 'Really Bad Things' we still move on.
We create stone, and bend metal to our desires. We can talk nearly instantly accross the globe.
We have been to the moon and have sent a machine to the edge of the solar system. Everyday people go out off there way to help others in some way.

Yeah, they're are asses, and bad people, but MOST people are good most of the time.
So overall humanity is a great, and can do amazing things every day.

Re:

[matthewcraig]

> Unfortunately, there are far too many things happening every day [...] to continually keep my faith in humanity pretty much nonexistant.

You would really rate our society on the basis of the worst we have to offer? What a pessimistic view of the world! I, for one, will look at mankind's heroes when evaluating. I suggest not letting the actions of outcast individuals craft your view of humanity, especially when those actions are legally and morally opposite to society at large. Instead, celebrate wit

Re:

[exley]

The actions of a few "outcast individuals" do not erase great accomplishments that we achieve. At the same time, great accomplishments don't erase all of the truly vile shit that's going on out there. I'm not just talking about one single shooting, or even our destruction of the environment, or global violence. Those are all just microcosms of the bigger picture. It's fun and easy to always look at and celebrate the good stuff, but some of us don't want to do that at the expense of ignoring things that

Re:

[The_Wilschon]

Well, perhaps we will need precisely some of the knowledge we gain from space exploration in order to overcome problems we are facing here on earth. Perhaps if we had never had NASA or some equivalent somewhere in the world, we would have no chance of surviving the problems we might have with the environment, for instance.

Re:

[Mr2cents]

It's positive to see we won't grow bored quickly once humanity gets tired of playing war. But if you compare the budget spent on war and compare that to space exploration, it's more of a depressing thought.

It does send out a great message saying "look what we can do with today's technology", but most people seem to lack a sense of imagination to see the possibilites if we really were determined to go out there. In fact, we should have been a lot further if you simply look at people were doing 40 years ago.

Re:Events such as this restore my faith in Humanit

[Brickwall]

Absolutely. What amazes me is we can construct equipment that can fly millions of miles through close to absolute zero temparature, land on a planet with minimal human supervision, ride all over the place for *three* years with a design life of six months, and continues to beam back pictures. If you had suggested this to someone in 1965, they'd have thought you were a loony.

On the other hand, you look at this accomplishment, and then you wonder why the world's most popular operating system is successfull

Re:

[timeOday]

If you had suggested this to someone in 1965, they'd have thought you were a loony.

The robotic rovers are cool, but from what I can tell people in the 60's were expecting something more like permanent human settlement on Mars by now. Aerospace progressed incredibly from WWI into the early 1970s and then... not so much.

Re:Events such as this restore my faith in Humanit

[eln]

Based on NASA's 2007 budget request, we could fund it for more than 100 years on what we've spent on the war in Iraq so far. We could fund it for 260 years with the money we've spent on the Defense Department in 2006. We could fund it for almost 300 years with the money Bush gave back in tax cuts for the richest 1%. The amount of money the Medicare Drug Plan is projected to cost over the next 10 years could fund NASA for 560 years.

NASA is not the first place you should be looking for answers to the government's budget problems.

Re:

[Jugalator]

It's a popular complaint though, because as opposed to the war in Iraq enhancing the US society every day it goes on, NASA isn't achieving [thespaceplace.com] anything good for it with their funding. :-p

Re:

[stunt_penguin]

Funniest comment I've read in ages, and to think I nearly took offence because I thought you were serious......... :p

Pacifist Socialists don't make it to space ...

[AHumbleOpinion]

Have you noticed that the countries with the largest militaries are the one's with the most capable space programs? Have you noticed that the countries with socialized medicine and minimal military are not in space, or they largely piggy back on the former? I think things are a bit more complex than you suggest. Now I'm all for greatly increasing NASA's funding, but getting rid of the Pentagon will do more harm to NASA than good. The place to cut the budget is all the damn pork projects that do nothing other than get incumbants re-elected. Some of these are in the Pentagon, but many are outside of it. Pork is one of the few things conservatives and liberals agree on.

"The most expensive thing in the world is a second-best military establishment, good but not good enough to win."
Robert A. Heinlein

Re:

[geekoid]

You want to save money? stop using civilian contractors.

Re:

[Digitus1337]

The countries with the largest militaries have also tended to have the best rocket scientists.

Re:

[AHumbleOpinion]

The countries with the largest militaries have also tended to have the best rocket scientists.

Close, the countries with the better militaries tend to have the rocket scientists. I'll refer back to Heinlein's quote about the second-best military and point out all the German rocket scientists who worked for the US and Russians after WW2. ;-)

Re:Pacifist Socialists don't make it to space ...

[Ariane 6]

Have you noticed that the countries with socialized medicine and minimal military are not in space, or they largely piggy back on the former?

Have you noticed a rather large launch complex in South America, and space probes orbiting the Moon, Venus, and Mars?

Have you even glanced at the ESA's upcoming mision roster?

You'll have to to better than that if you want to troll around here.

Re:

[ZeroExistenZ]

Have you noticed that the countries with the largest militaries are the one's with the most capable space programs?

Hold there, for just a minute... and remember history.

There were rumors the Germans were building an Atomic Bomb, to be ahead of them, the USA invested ALOT in beating them because if Germans had nukes before the rest of the west nothing would be able to stop Hitler. Massive militaristic funds were made available here.

WW2 ended, while the West tried to recover and the east being very care

Re:

[AHumbleOpinion]

And FYI, alot of European countries have engineered their own sattelites and do work in space. (there's the international spacestation as well, remember?)

I was referring to manned space flight and "piggy backing" was referring to ESA folks getting there via the US and Russians.

Re:

[jafac]

but getting rid of the Pentagon will do more harm to NASA than good.

You vastly underestimate how badly the Air Force fucked NASA by crippling the Shuttle the way they did. (just one example of how NASA has been rendered almost completely worthess because of Air Force meddling).

Counter example : France

[aepervius]

Minimal "professional" army, socialized medicine, and still goign strong on rocket science.

Re:

[David Off]

Arianne 5 is one of the best launch vehicles in the known universe. For a change France is concentrating on practicalies - comms systems, observation and weather satellites, interplanetary studies etc. ESA have had some fantastic programmes recently. Whinching over-evolved chimps into space on the back of ICBM as some kind of vanity exercise (a la China etc) is not where it is at.

Re:

[Matt Perry]

I'm all for greatly increasing NASA's funding, but getting rid of the Pentagon will do more harm to NASA than good.

No one said anything about getting rid of the Pentagon. Get a grip. The parent poster was explaining to the GP poster that the amount of money spent on NASA is tiny compared to other things. He was just putting stuff in perspective.

Correlation does not imply causation

[Goonie]

You're confusing correlation and causation. The Soviets may have had plenty of military, but they also had the biggest socialised medicine scheme you've ever seen.

The countries with space programs are the ones big enough and rich enough to afford it, and the desire to impress one's neighbours. First it was the USA and the Soviets. Then it was the Europeans, Japanese, and Chinese (no, the Europeans and Japanese don't have their own crewed launch vehicles, but the Europeans are planning to build one). The

Re:

[Pike]

wow, this is hilarious. I see a slashdot lead-in extolling the longevity of the mars rover program and think, "I'm gonna go in there and post a comment blaming President Bush for something, just as a joke" ... and, lo and behold, there it was, already waiting for me. Modded 5 Insightful to boot.

I'll give you credit, based on the timestamps it actually took all of 35 minutes for you to turn a discussion of astronomical exploration into a rant about Iraq and tax cuts.

Re:

[LindseyJ]

Imagine how many scientific discoveries and inventions might never have been made if there were no wars.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah. Things like radar, sonar, high performance jet engines, compact wireless telegraphy, nuclear power and computers would all have been invented so much quicker if there hadn't been wars to get in the way.

Re:

[LindseyJ]

I think you missed my point, or misread my post. I was rebuffing the parent's belief that wars (or at least military spending) got in the way of science.

Re:

[mrchaotica]

Therefore, we should fully fund DARPA -- and halve the rest of the DoD budget!

Re:

[Pharmboy]

Imagine how many scientific discoveries and inventions might never have been made if there were no wars.

Shouldn't take long to do it, since half of the technological advances are BECAUSE of war, including the internet, the rockets/missle that NASA launches on, and the majority of spending in the sciences.

You don't have to like war to understand that while the price is high, so are the rewards for the victors. The key is being the victor.

And in the case of Germany...

[Belial6]

And in the case of Germany, the rewards are great for the losers. I'm no historian, but everything presented so far leads me to believe that Germany was much better off after WWII than it was before. I suspect Japan is too, but it may be that I am looking though too thick a cloud of cultural bias.

Re:And in the case of Germany...

[Pharmboy]

And in the case of Germany, the rewards are great for the losers. I'm no historian, but everything presented so far leads me to believe that Germany was much better off after WWII than it was before. I suspect Japan is too, but it may be that I am looking though too thick a cloud of cultural bias.

I would agree that in the long run, they have been better off, and that has happened often in history.

Have you noticed that since the Geneva Convention was signed, and the UN formed, no country has been better off afterwards? Or that no one has been treated better, except by the "Evil Empire" et al.? And that there are just as many wars, and they are just as deadly, but they don't end fast due to limitations in the Convention? AND if we were under the Geneva Convention during WW2, we would not have been able to bomb civilians, factories or nuke anyone? Notice a trend?

Re:

[Original Replica]

Are you suggesting that in sanitizing war we have somehow broken it? Are the few positive effects of war brought about by the ugliest aspects of an already horrible thing?

Re:

[Skye16]

Oh yeah. Imagine how many people would be against the war if we raged through Iraq like the Mongols, literally raping, pillaging, burning, and killing as we went. Even if the Iraq war did begin, do you think our people would be behind it after motion video after motion video showed in great detail thousands and thousands of instances of true atrocity?

(I know, bad things have happened in this war, but compared to how bad it *could* have been, it's a positively sunny walk in the park. Which is a pretty h

Typical miltaristic bullshit.

[jotaeleemeese]

The US ingored blantantly most of the Geneva convention during the Vietnam War.

Vietnam, in spite of this, is better off now.

This is due to adopting market reforms and has nothing to do with the existence of the UN or the Geneva convention.

How in your mind economic development after a war is linked to reasonbale safeguards against butal behaviour is beyond my comprehension.

We have seen plenty of conflicts (Burundi, Rwanda, Congo, Yugoslavia) in which the Geneva conventions and the UN were just meaningles wor

Re:

[ozmanjusri]

Germany was much better off after WWII than it was before. I suspect Japan is too

That had less to do with the war itself, and a great deal to do with the Marshall plan (in Europe) for rebuilding the countries' economies. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_plan [wikipedia.org] The Japanese reconstruction, while different to Europe, also involved US economic management under the SCAP system. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan's_post-war_econ omy [wikipedia.org]

Re:

[timeOday]

everything presented so far leads me to believe that Germany was much better off after WWII than it was before.

I think that's because of where the world was on the curve of economic development at the time. The US had its most fantastic economic growth in the postwar years, too. You can say that's all due to the war, but industrialization really began before that. I think it was industrialization that caused both rapid economic development and facilitated the most destructive wars ever. Kinda hard to

You are no historian, and it shows.

[jotaeleemeese]

To say that the rewards are great for the losers shows such an abismal ignorence that I don't know where to start.

But lets start somewhere.

Germany was the second country with more people killed after the USSR, this without accounting for the people killed in the demented genocide that took place there. Entire towns like Dresden, Hamburg, Berlin, Leipzig were literally removed from the face of earth, and ever since then Germans, most of who by now had nothing to do with the war, have to deal with a national

You don't know that.

[jotaeleemeese]

My blood just boils when people make these ascertions without giving them a second thought. They have bought in the popular wisdom spread mostly in countries in which, oh surprise, the economy is highly dependent in selling death machines.

If you think that science in Iraq, Sudan, Palestine or Afghanistan is going to be advanced at all thanks to the ongoing wars there, I venture with confidence that you are an idiot.

The countries in which some scientific advancement is gained during conflicts do so because t

Re:

[Sloppy]

Imagine the research and the discoveries we could do if there were no wars.

Or imagine the wars we could prevent if only we researched/discovered really devastating weapons (that make nukes look like loving featherstrokes by comparison) thus creating a super-duper Mutually-Assured-Destruction effect. ;-)

Re:

[Solandri]

Imagine the research and the discoveries we could do if there were no wars. If only a third or fourth of the DoD budget was given to scientists

If a nation progresses ahead of its neighbors scientifically or economically but invests nothing in its military, that nation will promptly be attacked, invaded, and conquered by a neighboring country. The key to surviving is to spending enough on the military so that it is more expensive for another country to successfully attack you than to conduct the scientifi

Re:

[soft_guy]

OK. I agree with you, but consider this... something like HALF the taxes we pay goes just for interest on the debt! What I would like is if Congress could get the DEBT under control before the fscking government collapses.

If we had a ballanced budget AND got rid of useless spending such as NASA, optional wars, AmTrak, Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Weapon systems that we don't need, National Endowment for the Arts, Federal Department of Education, UN, National Parks, etc, etc. then we could have a REA

These are some tough robots

[Tod DeBie]

Spirit and Opportunity are some seriously tough robots. My hat is off to the engineering teams that built them. How much longer will they go?

Re:

[Neuropol]

According to the many articles I've read about Spirit and Opportunity, they'll continue to run as long as the dust that's collecting on the solar panels doesn't get too thick, resulting in blockage of the essential part of it's charging system.

I wonder, if in the future, NASA will develop a type of self cleaning aparatus to aide in "dusting" them.

Re:These are some tough robots

[gevmage]

That's an good question. When the PI for the project spoke at University of Illinois, someone asked that.

He said that basically having yet another moving part just wouldn't end up being worth the expense of engineering it and adding the weight to the rover and the launch vehicle.

The next rover that will be launched in a few years will have a plutonium oxide power source, so that the power won't be a factor.

Actually, dust on the panels isn't the only issue. Eventually the mechanical parts wear out, get dirt in them, so they don't work. Spirit is running on 5 of 6 wheels now. The PI said that if it loses another one, then it probably won't ever be able to move again. That is, the solar panels are fine, the computers and instruments are fine, but if one more motor goes out, then it's limited to what it can do in a stationary position.

Re:

[jandrese]

The original estimates on their lifetime were wildly pessimistic though. Basically, the JPL wants more stories of how they "exceeded design specifications 20 times over!" instead of "big failure of a robot fails early, losers!"

Yawn

[BTWR]

he original estimates on their lifetime were wildly pessimistic though. Basically, the JPL wants more stories of how they "exceeded design specifications 20 times over!" instead of "big failure of a robot fails early, losers!"

Yeah, I've heard this explanation from you people who "really" know the story. Anyone else sick of these monday-morning quarterbacks? After Pathfinder lasted months instead of 30 days, they accused them of "knowing it'd last more than 30 days anyway." What, now you're gonna claim

Re:

[jandrese]

As I see it, they were highly pessimistic with the original estimates because they really didn't know what they'd find. Given the design there is no reason they can't run for quite a long time (basically until they have system failure on something critical).

Re:

[LordVader717]

Lower Quality solar panels? That's not the place to save money. They could have made the whole rovers out of Platimun, and it would still be a minute amount compared to the total cost of the mission. (about 7 million USD vs. 820 million USD)

They clean themselves

[barakn]

Various mechanisms involving dust, wind, steep slopes, etc. have been proposed, see this article [newscientist.com].

Why didn't they send more?

[amightywind]

They are amazing. The rover architecture is obviously a great success. It makes me wonder why we are not sending many more identical or slightly upgraded craft. There is a single larger rover planned for 2009, but it seems to me that it is unlikely to out perform a larger number of cheaper craft and that a replan was in order. But for sheer exploration it is hard to beat these things.

Re:

[jandrese]

Because there are only certain launch windows where you can reach Mars in a reasonable amount of time. There are sweet spots where the distance between the Earth and Mars is minimized. Obviously NASA and the JPL time their launches to occur during those sweet spots.

Re:

[amightywind]

My point is the 2006 and 2008 opportunities could have been used to launch 4-6 Spirit class rovers for the price of the Phoenix Lander and Mars Science Laboratory.

Re:

[gevmage]

Probably because of cost. Each consumes a cost in terms of:

cost to build robot

cost to build advanced instrumentation

cost to condition and launch

continued cost of personnel on the ground to monitor and control when they're on the surface of mars

They probably dont' want to get into the situation where their limiting factor is number of people to man shifts. Instead of several more solar-powered units, they're gearing up to send a bigger one with a nuclear power source, so that it never has to worry

Re:

[Ariane 6]

Sending more MER-class rovers after MSL is indeed one of the options that are being considered. They're calling them "Mid Rovers", though.

Re:

[SirBruce]

Your instinct is incorrect. The "single larger rover" is going to last FAR longer than the MERs, unless something breaks. But it won't be due to the power source; it's RTG powered. It will also be able to drive faster and farther than the MERs. And do a lot more science.

The MER-sized rover is obviously a good design, but they have many drawbacks. For one thing, they really were TOO heavy -- the airbag landing system nearly failed, and the small chute really is vulnerable to high horizontal winds. More

What units?

[lucabrasi999]

The rover Spirit is wounded, having only 5 of 6 wheels functioning

Are those English Wheels or Metric Wheels?

More importantly

[roman_mir]

if they were attached to swallows, how many coconuts could be carried?

Re:

[Sabalon]

European or African Swallows?

Re:

[Pharmboy]

Think that is confusing? How about the Brittish monetary system before decimalization? Here is one example [pauahtun.org] but you can google for others. With farthings and halfpennies and guinea, oh my....

Victoria's Secreat no more

[Anonymous Coward]

Once the rover reaches the Victoria Crater, that will an end to Victoria's Secret!

Score one for NASA

[edwardpickman]

The shuttle program may have been a mess but the rovers are one of the greatest accomplishments in space exploration to date and they just keep going. I'm guessing at least one of the rovers will still be going two years from now. There may have been failures along the way but in Mars research NASA has done a stunning job. Most other countries haven't had much luck getting probes to orbit Mars but NASA has had many successes. I'd love to see the shuttle program scrapped but I'm still a massive NASA fan. I would love to see probe go to some of the more interesting sites on Mars though. The poles and such. They would need a self contained power source though. Nowhere near enough light for solar.

Re:Score one for NASA

[nairnr]

I had to laugh when I went to the Mission [nasa.gov] page. They have the Mission days listed in Sols, as well as the Sols Past Warranty!

This mission has been such a great success. I think it has fallen off the radar of most people who don't realize that they are still out there. NASA needs some better PR to capitalize on great science. NASA needs credit where credit is due, not for the ISS, but for true exploration.

Re:

[The_Wilschon]

Actually, NASA has failed as much as everyone else. Mars has defied so many attempts to examine it that people actually started referring to a "Mars Curse" [wikipedia.org].

Wrong.

[BTWR]

Actually, NASA has failed as much as everyone else.

The USA is 5-for-6 in successfully landing it's landers (only failure was the Mars Polar Lander). Viking 1, 2, Pathfinder, Spirit and Opportunity all were successes (and wonderful successes at that).

USSR had zero landers successfully make it.

The ESA is 0-for-1 in landers.

thats what he said

[coldtone]

"We don't have major discoveries every week. But we do expect some major new discoveries when we get inside Victoria,"

An ROI that any bean-counter would love...

[elm3r]

Seeing projects like this really gives me hope about the space program. I mean, look at the ROI on this project: for a project that was only supposed to last 90 days, we've gotten over 1000 days of use out of it. Kinda makes up for the other "crater" project... =)

Add an " 's "

[mhokie]

Add an 's to get "Mars Rover Reaches Victoria's Crater" and you get the title of a well worn "video" I used to own.

Re:

[Tablizer]

Add an 's to get "Mars Rover Reaches Victoria's Crater" and you get the title of a well worn "video" I used to own.

Does Opportunity smoke a cigarette when it's done drilling?
       

Still going?

[DaveM753]

FTA: The rovers Spirit and Opportunity arrived on Mars three years ago with planned mission lifetime of 90 days.

Are you sure these rovers were made in America??
;-)

Re:

[geekoid]

of course.
Had they not been, then they would have cost 30% less and lasted 50 days.

The prestigious Nobel in Wind and Dust

[Elwood P Dowd]

Spirit is conducting studies that benefit from staying in one place, such as monitoring effects of wind on dust.

Awww. Poor Spirit.

Matthew 26:41

[NoMaster]

The rover Spirit is wounded, having only 5 of 6 wheels functioning, and so it's moving quite slowly.

So the Spirit is willing, but it's flesh is weak?

There's a lot of good info [bible.org] and advice [bible.org] in the Bible...

Re:

[Tablizer]

So the Spirit is willing, but it's flesh is weak?

When Spirit had a show-stopping glitch with its flash memory card in 2004, one headline read, "The Spirit is willing, but the flash is weak".
     

Still a tossup

[SpaceLifeForm]

Will Vista be released before even one of the rovers dies?

New Wallpaper!

[EvanED]

I just got two monitors in my office... looks like I have a new wallpaper for them! Sweet!

Get in there!

[posterlogo]

Steven Squires, the science director for the Mars rovers has stated that Opportunity will likely spend a lot of time at the crater, which is a scientific gold mine. They want to analyze the exposed subterranean material on the crater walls. I get the impression that the rover may ultimately be asked to go cautiously into the crater and likely spend the rest of its life there. It could go for a while, or it could die any minute. Should it fail while in the crater, it will leave a rich scientific treasure

Not quite accurate with regard to "slow"

[Tablizer]

The rover Spirit is wounded, having only 5 of 6 wheels functioning, and so it's moving quite slowly.

Actually, spirit has stopped because it does not have enough power to move very far during Martian winter, and they would rather camp it on a small slope facing the sun than risk getting stuck without sunlight and freezing its parts to death. Spirit camped last Martian winter also for several weeks for a similar reason.

When Winter is finished (soon), it will rove again. However, it will not be near as nimble as it was with all 6 wheels.

Opportunity is at a slightly better lattitude for sunlight, and has been on flat areas this winter, so it does not need such winter camping.
 

Autostitched and VR pano's from Mars

[Rxke]

For people that like the rovers and hadn't stumbled upon it before:

http://midnightmarsbrowser.blogspot.com/ [blogspot.com]

"the Midnight Mars Browser software, which allows home users to download images and view slideshows and "virtual reality" panoramas from the Mars Exploration Rovers "Spirit" and "Opportunity"."

it is really awesome, try it out, you get the latest pics from Mars virtually real time (before they're up @ jpl's site.)

Pannable and zoomable panorama's, false colour and true colour movies etc etc.

Re:

[jamesh]

What... for tea and scones? To chat about old times? To poke fun together at the other countries who couldn't get something down to mars in one piece?

The only useful thing to come out of a meetup would be if one of them got stuck and needed a tow, but then you risk both of them getting stuck.

What would be cool is to find the site of one of the other failed surface missions... but think about how far it would have to travel to go there and how long it would take. These things move really really slow and Mars

Re:

[secolactico]

The only useful thing to come out of a meetup would be if one of them got stuck and needed a tow

A tow to where?

Re:

[Robot Randy]

Besides, imaging the AAA cost even WITH the "good" membership.

Re:

[mrchaotica]

A tow out of the hole it got stuck in. He did say "stuck," you know, not "broke down."

Re:

[gevmage]

I don't think so. The article says It has driven more than 9.2 kilometers (5.7 miles).

They've been there (almost) 3 years, but that's all the farther Opportunity has gone, and it's the one with all wheels working. They are on the opposite sides of Mars, so they won't ever meet unless they're both functioning for hundreds or thousands of years, which is very unlikely.

Re:

[geekoid]

actually, they are faster now. They used to ahve to await a day between commands, the latest update prevented that.
Not that they can link up in any way, but just an interesting tidbit

Re:

[mi]

"Opportunity has been exploring Mars since January 2004" - no where near the three years reported by the poster.

It will be "January 2007" in about 15 weeks. Three years is 156 weeks. "Within 10%" is pretty "near", as far as I care...

Re:

[twostar]

Wrong, they landed in January of 2004. They were launched in the summer of 2003. Seeing how we have three months until the three year mark, that's not to far off.

Re:

[AJWM]

exploring Mars since January 2004" - no where near the three years reported

Let's see:
Jan 04 to Jan 05: one year
Jan 05 to Jan 06: another year
Jan 06 to now: add three/quarters of a year

I'd say 2.75 years is pretty close to 3 years. Throw in the transit time and you're well over that.

Re:

[failure-man]

A Martian year is longer than an Earthican year. (687 days.)

Re:

[Nalarik]

Shouldn't that be a Terran Year.

Re:

[cortana]

I think the standard name of the unit is "one of your Earth years".

Re:

[bar-agent]

Earthican is from Futurama, a term used in the 31st century. They also use the term orphanarium for what we would call an orphanage.

Re:US vs China

[Moridineas]

Just out of curiosity--by what standards exactly, is China "making the US look pretty bad" in space tech?

They've managed--using Russian derivative technology--to put one man into space. Nothing shoddy, true, however the US and Russia each, with completely new technologies, doing something never done before, put people into space over 45 years ago. We put men on the moon about 35 years ago.

I'm all in favor of furthering space exploration, and China is a very welcome addition to the frame (I hope their involvement makes us go to the moon again frankly). Saying that they make NASA look bad though is ludicrous and ill-informed.

Re:

[aschlemm]

We put men on the moon about 35 years ago.

Slight connection: The first U.S. Moon Landing was Apollo 11 on July 20, 1969 which was more than 37 years ago.

Re:

[An Ominous Cow Erred]

Actually they've put up three. See Shenzhou 6 [wikipedia.org] for the other two.

Re:

[Moridineas]

Ah you're correct, I forgot about that flight. thanks for the correction!

Re:

[Moridineas]

Good for them. "China" also announced an AIDs cure a couple months ago. Anyone can make announcements, I'll start being impressed when I see more than propaganda.

Re:

[LouisZepher]

"When the government designs these things that are supposed to last 90 days, they end up lasting two or three years."

Quiet, you! That line of thinking will result in the US engaged in another "quick" ousting of a dictator in an oil-rich country.