Posted on 01/03/2005 11:30:20 AM PST by ProudVet77
Sitting on the hill of an alien world millions of miles from home, a hardy NASA robot celebrates an anniversary Monday -- one year on the planet Mars. The Mars rover Spirit has come a long way since it hurtled down through the planet's atmosphere and came to a bouncy, airbag-protected stop at Gusev Crater on January 3, 2004. It has survived more than four times its initial 90-day mission, driven miles across the Martian landscape and weathered a red planet winter only to scale hills for its human handlers. A live webcast of NASA's One Year on Mars celebration begins Monday at 1:00 p.m. ET. NASA will commemorate Spirit's first year with a full day of programming, news conferences and even a rover birthday cake on NASA TV also beginning at 1:00 p.m. ET (1800 GMT) today. Spirit continues to return data from the Columbia Hills, a region more than two miles (3.2 kilometers) from its Gusev Crater landing site. Scouring those hills has given Spirit -- and researchers -- more evidence that water shaped Mars' past. Meanwhile, on the other side of Mars at Meridiani Planum, Spirit's robotic twin Opportunity is studying its own heat shield while it seeks to dig up more details on the area's watery past.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
The long-term performance of these rovers has been astounding. I don't think ANYONE at JPL even dreamed they'd be doing this after ONE YEAR!
Too bad GM and Ford can't match this !
Start sending supplies to Mars. A crew of crude robots can start getting the planet ready for us. We have a couple of decades to let them build.
Would love to see us planning two more follow up missions. The technology up there is already several years old. Keep the core systems that have worked so well, but add some extra/new science experiments. We can do lots of good science till we're ready to send men up there.
Wait until the 3-year 36,000 mile warranty runs out on it! It'll break down for sure then.
Technically, this is one Earth year.
A Martian year is 687 Earth days long.
Nevertheless, the achievement is amazing. I check in on the rovers every now and then.
The rover's reliability is in sharp contrast to John Kerry's Senate attendance.
What's happening is the Rover's are benefiting from a martian environment which is keeping their batteries stable and their solar panels clear and receptive. The power loss as a result is far lower than expected.
One of the rovers, I think it was Opportunity, actually had a boost in solar cell output a few months ago. The best they can figure is that while it was in a tilted position going up and down the crater, more of the solar cell array was exposed to the Martian wind and it actually blew some dust off of it.
Makes me darned proud!!!!
Had a brother in law who worked for NASA for years. Dedicated engineer, way back when.
Hope he's watching from heaven.
Cool Picture
LOLOLOLOL.......oh how funny.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.