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-   -   Putting Spirit and Opportunity to sleep?!? (http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/showthread.php?t=66245)

Rick TYler 25-03-2008 17:31

Re: Putting Spirit and Opportunity to sleep?!?
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by dlavery (Post 724664)
It is??? Wow. I wish someone had let me know. :eek:

(one should not necessarily believe everything one might read in the news)

Maybe, maybe not, but I do want to point out for the benefit of the utes who might be reading this that Dave's post is known in the political biz as a "non-denial denial." It means "maybe, maybe not." It also allows the reader to draw the conclusion they want while the author maintains plausible deniability. Dave's good. Very good.

(How's the design for the '09 ice-rink game coming?)

ChuckDickerson 25-03-2008 22:17

Re: Putting Spirit and Opportunity to sleep?!?
 
All the news outlets have it all wrong. Word on the street is that when Spirit and Opportunity do finally reach their useful end of life for NASA (currently projected to be about the year 2017) then NASA is going to auction off the controls to Spirit and Opportunity separately on Ebay. Anyone know what a good used Mars Rover goes for these days? I hear they are in pretty decent shape for the number of miles they have on them but it's not like you can "kick the tires" so it is a bit of a gamble. I just hate to bid too much. You know, they will be pretty well used by then and all the good exploration spots will have already been taken by NASA and all. Dave, have you thought about putting a reasonable "Buy-It-Now" on them? Say maybe 10,000 Krispy Kreme donuts. Of course, I would depreciate that by 1,000 KK for every additional year you keep wearing them out.

Al Skierkiewicz 25-03-2008 22:28

Re: Putting Spirit and Opportunity to sleep?!?
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by dlavery (Post 724664)
It is??? Wow. I wish someone had let me know. :eek:

-dave


(one should not necessarily believe everything one might read in the news)


.

I bet you thought you fell asleep in one of those boring staff meetings again didn't you? That's like waking up in the middle of the night and thinking "Did I turn off my soldering iron before I left the shop or didn't I?!?"

Alan Anderson 26-03-2008 01:47

Re: Putting Spirit and Opportunity to sleep?!?
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by robotcanuck1676 (Post 724763)
...when I read that on the AP...

[RANT]
I have learned to avoid giving the AP too much credibility.

I've been part of, or have had inside knowledge of, several "newsworthy" events that got mangled to the point of unrecognizability by the Associated Press. Don't try to defend them by saying that they just pick up stories from other sources -- I've seen how they edit those stories, leave out important context, juxtapose things to make people seem to say the thing which is not, and occasionally add a word or two of invented detail just to make it more attention-getting.

On top of many primary sources failing to get the details perfectly correct, this makes a lot of what goes through AP unreliable enough that I can't trust any of it.
[/RANT]

JesseK 26-03-2008 10:10

Re: Putting Spirit and Opportunity to sleep?!?
 
Well, I usually give slashdot minor credibility. Then again, www.physorg.com also had this story and I really like that site since it's all about sci/tech and is usually accurate. I guess we'll have to see.

I wish the "controls" for the rovers could go up on eBay. Too bad they're all just transmitted lines of presimulated code...

Travis Hoffman 26-03-2008 10:10

Re: Putting Spirit and Opportunity to sleep?!?
 
Here's a wild thought -

As a fundraiser, NASA creates a web portal through which the highest bidders on eBay can issue supervisory commands to the rovers and watch via the Web as they are executed.

"I wanna write my name in the Martian landscape with a rover's wheels." OK, $10,000,000 and we'll make that happen. :p


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