Quote:
Originally Posted by Chris is me
I've always wondered... The mission was always scheduled for 90 sol... but did anyone estimate the "actual" amount of time the rovers would last would be xyz sol? How much longer will they go for?
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I can't find my copy for specifics, but Steve Squyres'
Roving Mars discusses it. Essentially, after Lockheed's Mars Polar Lander incident (they didn't read the manual, and their software operated in Metric units when it was supposed to be English units and it burned up in the Martian atmosphere) the emphasis was on a reasonable duration they were SURE they could exceed. They were sure that dust build up on the solar panels would kill them, but luckily the dust build up was slower than they though, and it turned out that every so often the wind would blow some of the build-up off the panels.
Roving Mars on Amazon