Putting Spirit and Opportunity to sleep?!?

[Rick TYler]

Originally Posted by dlavery

It is??? Wow. I wish someone had let me know.

(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]

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.