Want to get an engineer excited? Give them a challenge. And the Opportunity rover has provided plenty of challenges in the past 10 years on Mars. Fun challenges, though. Amazing tests of wit and skill, doing repairs on a rover that is sometimes a hundred million kilometers away. But with the longevity of the rovers also comes some amazing science.
The Opportunity rover is celebrating ten years on Mars. While the rovers were designed for about 1 kilometer of odometry, Oppy has now traveled 38.7 kilometers (24 miles). At yesterday’s briefing, the rover scientists and engineers said Opportunity is still in very good health and still is scientifically productive.
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Read the rest of The Difficulties of Operating a Rover on Mars for 10 Years (285 words)
© nancy for Universe Today, 2014. |
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Post tags: Mars, MER, Missions, Opportunity Rover
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