What is Digg?39 Comments
- Pas3n7, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5"OSX?? Nope Their running Good old Sturdy Windows Me... how else could they last that long?"
No, they aren't running Win ME. The ME sticker on the side is just to scare away any possible alien attackers. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Little Green men repair them
- brockpetrie, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3"I'm beginning to think these guys deliberately underesitimate the lasting power of their hardware just so they can use the "Scotty strategy": they get to look superhuman by keeping it running for so much longer than it's design lifetime."
exactly. and they equipped secret magically-get-unstuck-from-a-foot-of-sand equipment because they predicted the future and knew one of them was going to get caught in a dust storm. in fact, its probably not even equipment, its gnomes- ***** gnomes! pushin em around so the nasa scientists can all look superhuman.... - thadesiest1, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4"8 miles in two years... OMG!"
you do realize that they are autonomous and on another planet! right? - lilrabbit129, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2If we ever put people on Mars, they should collect those two rovers and bring them home. They've earned it.
- vpisteve, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Heh, I keep waiting for the scientists to look up at their screens and see this:
http://www.vpmusic.com/images/personal/mars.jpg - Chompy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I'm beginning to think these guys deliberately underesitimate the lasting power of their hardware just so they can use the "Scotty strategy": they get to look superhuman by keeping it running for so much longer than it's design lifetime.
- jpenn, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I heard this was causing some problems a while back. The engineers and scientists were only scheduled to work on the project for 3-6 months, some to gather the data and others to analyze it. These folks had other projects that they were scheduled to work on once this one was completed. The funding had to be renewed (taken from other projects) and then other projects had to be pushed back or possible scrapped.
I am sure everyone is amazed that these little guys are still running - but a bet a few people at NASA wish they would die already! - kaffiene, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Jeez, spot the Mac Zealots....
They are NOT on OSX, the rover's OS is Wind River Systems' Vx-Works version 5.3.1 - csimpkins, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Hard to believe it's been 2 years already.
- burndive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Amazement awaits those with low expectations at every turn.
If the rovers had crashed, they would have just said, "Oh well, we only lost 90 days of data." The budget estimates that NASA gave to Congress only includeed 90 days of ground support factored into the cost. Once they landed successfully and drove around for a bit, they went back with pretty landscape pictures and asked them for more money to keep going. - implosion, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"Last March, for example, a whirlwind in the Martian atmosphere blew the dust off Spirit's solar panels, allowing it to regenerate its batteries and its mission could continue."
Are they kidding?
They sent these rovers across the solar system without windshield/solar panel wipers! - TGMD, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1OSX?? Nope Their running Good old Sturdy Windows Me... how else could they last that long?
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0so whats the dirt?
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0They must have overclocked them.
- tauge, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Now that's what I call engineering!......
- Dingc, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Proving once again, in a few years, robots will own our asses
- leobaby, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0now if they were only self-replicating....
- gabeN, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0That's .0004566 MPH per rover for those of you who are intrested...
- bryan8m, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"Didn't we hear about this a week ago?"
The anniversary for Opportunity was yesterday. - canyonblue, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"Little Green men repair them"
In a way... yes. The engineers never felt that Martian winds would blow dust off of the solar panels so they felt that in just 6 months (although they felt other failures would limit the mission to 90 days) the energy of the sun would no longer be enough to power the rovers. Instead there have been periodic wind storms, or dust devils which are actually CLEANING the solar panels and it is hugely visible in pictures of the panels and in the sudden and magically lucky jump in voltage the panels produce. - 4answer2, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0The estimated running time was underestimated beforehand
- lon3, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0gak! gak!
- Kashey, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0They shell use something else for power source. Something with extra kick. hmm...plutonium.
- joeljkp, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"You get a lot more bang for your buck when NASA doesn't have an "unlimited" budget to complete the mission."
Yeah... like the Polar Lander.
Seriously, they had a good team on this one, and things have been going amazingly for them. I feel for them though - this is going to raise expectations far beyond where they should be. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0A vehicle that can run for 2 yrs without refueling on a different planet without a driver onboard. No wonder the auto industry is in trouble. NASA needs to make cars....
- Moocat, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"They sent these rovers across the solar system without windshield/solar panel wipers!"
That's what I was thinking when I heard that :p Anyhow, I'm glad they are still up and running, funding another investment in sending more robots up there to collect more data would be quite a bit more costly than simply maintaing the little buggers we have up there now including planning, scheduling, designing, building etc. And later models almost always cost more to maintain.
Overall though I'm glad to see we're always getting more pictures and new information, it's not like we're getting the same info everyday, it's new stuff all the time so it's useful to know :) - 0Troy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0That's kick ass...
- chuck2006, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Yeah, the mars rover mission was completed on chump change compared to previous program budgets. I believe they only spent around 500 million compared to the 10s of billions spent on other manned space programs. You get a lot more bang for your buck when NASA doesn't have an "unlimited" budget to complete the mission.
- cyberghost232, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0well if they are using windows me then the little green men will truely know there is no intelligent life in out galaxy.
- adrianguru, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Maybe they are powered by Energizers.
- BIllyBobFett, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Engineers are the master race.
- MrEcho, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Only if they built cars like them...
- fillemvs, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0compared to how much we spend on manned missions, i'd say these two rovers have made good returns.
- ek3s, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1They're on OSX
- drshabazz, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1what are you guys talking about? windows ME rocks! I've been using it non stop for years and years. mac is lamer because OS 9 is hard on my eyes, and there's no start button. win ME makes the internet so easy, and it has e-mail at the touch of a button. and microsoft is so generous for allowing you to have a web browser for free... and they even have an online prog that saves your credit card information so you can buy with 1 click. i can't believe how anyone in the world would use an operating system without windows me - it's the greatest thing and also my computer came with a cup holder microsoft didn't even advertise it.
- arunforce, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0Didn't we hear about this a week ago?
- olegk, on 10/12/2007, -2/+08 miles in two years... OMG!
- Inthraller, on 10/12/2007, -3/+0There is 4 stories of this on Digg.... a dupe of a dupe of a dupe of a... anyway.. you get the idea.
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