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twoelevenMars Rover Opportunity Hits Driving Milestone on 10th Birthday
more practically, i think the next generation rovers may be sufficiently autonomous to finally kill off the silly notion that we need to send guys to mars to do science!. even just a couple of klicks per day of autonomous travel would let a machine that can hang out for a decade cover a lot of ground over its lifetime.
On the 10th anniversary of its launch, NASA's Opportunity rover on Mars is also celebrating reaching the halfway point in its drive from one crater-rim segment to another.it's a curious definition of "birthday", but as with quibbles over the first year of the new century, it means we can celebrate several times. i imagine the JPL folks celebrated the 10th anniversary of opportunity first saying, "good morning, dr. chandra." or whatever it did, we're now celebrating the 10th anniversary of the mission start, and in a few months we'll get to celebrate the 10th anniversary of it roaming around mars. parties for everybody!
The Opportunity rover, which is still going strong on the Red Planet long after its official mission was slated to end, is journeying 1.2 miles (2 kilometers) from the spot it studied for the past 22 months, on the edge of Mars' Endeavour crater, to another area where it will begin a new phase in its research.
Sunday (July 7) marks the 10th anniversary of Opportunity's launch from Earth with its sister rover Spirit, which shut down on Mars in 2010. The rovers lifted off in 2003, and arrived at the Red Planet in January 2004. They were originally expected to operate for three months.
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more practically, i think the next generation rovers may be sufficiently autonomous to finally kill off the silly notion that we need to send guys to mars to do science!. even just a couple of klicks per day of autonomous travel would let a machine that can hang out for a decade cover a lot of ground over its lifetime.