[beckett]

Are you sure about the duplicate stuff? The reason I ask is because a NOVA special followed these engineers around at JPL and the group leader made the point during an impact test of one of the components that this project was unique in that they only had live components, no backups. As I understand it, the backup is the duplicate project, Opportunity, due to land tomorrow morning.

[Prime Choice]

Are you sure about the duplicate stuff? The reason I ask is because a NOVA special followed these engineers around at JPL and the group leader made the point during an impact test of one of the components that this project was unique in that they only had live components, no backups.

The rover itself (that is to say, the one on Mars) is unique in that it had to be fashioned, assembled and prepared for launch in a clean room with sterilization techniques from cradle-to-grave so as to assure no terran-based microbial contamination of Mars.

But yes, there is a terran copy. It is the testbed by which all software updates are sent for quality assurance.