Wednesday, January 05, 2005

NASA's Mars rovers still kicking after a year

Remember those Mars rovers? They were designed to scoot around the Red Planet for a three-month tour. They're still driving, drilling and having a rockin' robot good time a full year later:

"The rovers are in amazingly good shape for their age," [project manager Jim Erickson] said. "They sailed through the worst of the Martian winter, and spring is coming. Both rovers are in strong positions to continue exploring, but we can't give any guarantees." When the rovers landed on Mars last January, NASA anticipated a 90-day, $820 million mission. The mission got a $15 million, six-month extension last spring and has just been authorized an additional $3 million a month for six more months of operations, according to Firouz Naderi, head of the Mars Exploration Program at JPL. "It's inconceivable to me that NASA won't keep them going as long as they possibly can," he said.

The only way this could get better would be if they find oil.

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