The Martian lives of Spirit and Opportunity

At times, it seems like NASA's Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity will last forever on the red planet.

Since 2004, the twin rovers have explored different parts of Mars with amazing longevity that has astounded scientists almost as much as the data the robots have beamed back to Earth. Spirit and Opportunity have shed light on the history of water on Mars in the distant past, explored Martian hills and meteorites, and even rolled inside craters to probe ever-deeper into the planet's geologic history.

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It boggles the mind to think that Spirit and Opportunity are still functioning after all these years, seems it will go on forever, the technology has improved since they were launched and imagine today they could get more info.



[edit on 17-10-2009 by Aquarius1]

Yeah it is amazing! Imagine the technology that has been hidden from you for all these years! If you think the rovers are amazing imagine the technology that the black ops has been pumping trillions into! I'm guessing your reaction would be something like this



Lol not being sarcastic by the way. The rovers are amazing if everything is as we are told it is(which I highly doubt!).

[edit on 17-10-2009 by kcfusion]

[edit on 17-10-2009 by kcfusion]

I highly doubt we are being told everything, in fact hardly nothing, if it's anything that might help mankind it stays hidden, not that it's scary in any way, all about the money.

Tried to embed a picture of Homer drooling. Not happening for me on this occasion.

Yes you are right its about money power and control! The people of this planet have been in the dark for so long now. What a shame!

Me , I am looking forward to some distant time in the future when one of these " rovers " can be picked up at the local toy or science shop and launched from your own back yard to then beam pictures back to your laptop .

Only problem being .... considering the rise of inflation and the devalued dollar these things will probably retail for just over 1 billion so hears hoping the minimum wage will be pushing 10 mill a hour .


All kidding aside , you really have to hand it to NASA for hitting one out of the park . The Rovers are truly amazing and have exceeded beyond NASA's wildest dreams .

[edit on 17-10-2009 by Max_TO]

Those rovers are amazing!

I can almost imagine some guy in a “Naval Space Command” jumpsuit running out from behind a rock to wipe dust off solar panels. I can picture him doing a quick bit of maintenance with a socket wrench, then mischievous thumbs up to the rover’s cameras before running off to hide behind his rock again

Hahahaha I'm laughing and at the same time its probably ahighly possible situation hehehe.

reply to post by SmokeJaguar67

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That works for me.

Hey my fellow lateral thinkers I am glad to have made you laugh.

Call me a cynic but these rovers have always struck me as being incredible in that they keep on running even after years of accumulated dust build up on their solar panels. I imagine so many unrealities when I read news about the rovers or see a photograph.

By the way I was fifty percent serious and fifty percent joking earlier.

reply to post by SmokeJaguar67

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The accumulated dust is also sometimes partially removed by the winds, that is noticeable on the photos of the solar panels, without any marks of being hand-cleaned.

Also, the dust that remains on the panels is enough to make the recharging of the batteries slower, that's why the rovers move less than they did at the start of the mission. Spirit hasn't been moving since May but that's because it got stuck on very loose dust.

ArMap it wouldn't surprise me if it starts moving again given a strong enough wind to dislodge it, reminds me of the energizer bunny, it just keeps going and going.

Wind to dislodge Spirit? That would have to be one seriously powerful gust of wind. I don't think that's very likely to happen.

reply to post by Aquarius1

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No, one thing that most people forget is that the winds are strong on Mars but the atmosphere is "thinner", so it has much less energy than weaker winds on Earth, and even to dislodge a 70kg robot stuck some 20 cm deep in soft dust.

But the wind has once more cleared the solar panels, bringing the power almost to the same levels it had at the beginning of the mission, but as soon as the dust clouds reappeared and the Sun got weaker the power level started to go down.

It's a old cell phone, you can recharge the batteries but they will last less and less each time.