Indomitable Spirit
Sep. 2nd, 2005 04:25 pmWhile we're all distracted elsewhere, the toughest freakin' robots in known space just keep going. The Mars Spirit Rover, which landed on January 3rd 2004 and was expected to last "maybe 90 Martian days, if we're very lucky," ended it's 593rd Martian (606 Terran) days today. For months, it's been driving around the base of a collecting of hills five kilometers from its landing spot and the crew on Earth finally ordered it to climb to the top. It made it today.
Despite having a broken wheel necessitating often driving backwards, despite a crashed filesystem early on that gave it seziures, despite losing one of its spectrometers, and despite being over its warranty ten times, Spirit endures.
Opportunity had a software crash last week, but it seems to have recovered. It too is still going, and at the same rate as Spirit. Spirit is getting fabulous views but Opportunity landed in a geologically diverse area and is returning a lot more science. The pictures aren't as interesting so it gets less attention, but it's still there and still widening our understanding of the universe.
Despite having a broken wheel necessitating often driving backwards, despite a crashed filesystem early on that gave it seziures, despite losing one of its spectrometers, and despite being over its warranty ten times, Spirit endures.
Opportunity had a software crash last week, but it seems to have recovered. It too is still going, and at the same rate as Spirit. Spirit is getting fabulous views but Opportunity landed in a geologically diverse area and is returning a lot more science. The pictures aren't as interesting so it gets less attention, but it's still there and still widening our understanding of the universe.
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