Way Past Warranty
Has anybody noticed that the Mars rovers, Spirit and Opportunity are still running? Though they were intended to only operate for 80-90 days, they have been running and doing their jobs for more than 3 years! I think this is an astounding bit of engineering combined with a healthy dose of good fortune.
To date, Opportunity has logged more than 6 miles on Mars and continues with no sign of stoppage. Performance of the Spirit has been similar although this Mars rover is a little wounded, at this point. The rovers operate with a 6 wheel drive system to help them navigate over and around the Mars obstacles. At this point, Spirit is running on only five of its six wheels. Obviously, this hurts maneuverability.
Who knows how long these little machines will continue to operate? If you are interested in following the exploits of these highly successful missions, check out the NASA rover web page:
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.html
About the only thing that can top the story of the last 3 years would be if one of the rovers got stuck on a patch of ice!
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home