An update on the Mars rovers, 1 year and counting for Spirit, almost there for Opportunity.
Opportunity went into a crater for 6 months, found high concentrations of salt indicating that there was lots of surface water there, got out and is now checking out its own heat shield.
Spirit found separate evidence that water was on the surface of Mars, and has traveled more than 2 miles from its landing site and is climbing higher into Columbia Hills.
Having a expected life of 3 months, the rovers have outperformed all expectations. Congratulations Dave and everyone else who worked on these monumental rovers.
Had NASA contracted these rovers to some of us, they would have been on Mars in half the time for 1/4 the money, and the rovers would have had awesome ground effects.
I jest. <preach>Seriously, it is my dream to someday have half as much scientific impact as the good folks at NASA have now. I think most of us will some day have the competence, the capability and talent and experience, to do what they do, because ultimately, we are those with both talent and motivation to get stuff done, and within reason, get it done right. </preach>
I want to add my congratulations to Dave and his people for this major accomplishment in the NASA community. 1 year and counting for a program designed to last only 3 months. WOW!
Working for a major NASA contractor and building life support systems for Shuttle, Space Station and the EMU gives me an appreciation as to the level of detail that must be managed for a program to be this sucessful.
Be sure to watch the NOVA special “Welcome to Mars” tonight on PBS at 8:00 EST. The show is an hour-long documentary on the development and operations of the Mars Exploration Rovers, and their adventures after landing on Mars. It will be immediately followed by a re-broadcast of the “Mars: Dead or Alive” show.
National Geographic will be handling the broadcast in Europe, Asia, Africa, South America and Australia, but we don’t have any information about their schedules at this time.
I actually saw the NOVA last night - it was a very well made show and I saw Dave on the screen twice! Once at the very beginning you can see his hair in the bottom right, and later he is on the left of the screen after everyone has applauded for one of the rover’s many accomplishments. Another congratulations to Dave and NASA for their amazing success!
this PBS- Nova presentation sounds cool-- i’ll have to make my daddy tape it so i can study -lol-- but yes a VERY VERY BIG CONGRADS TO NASA AND THANK YOU TO ALL THOSE IN NASA FOR MAKING THIS COME ALIVE AND SUCCESSFUL --isn’t it great when great minds work together and get something like this done?? Well, i think so and this is very cool. I really can’t see what our generation does in all the various fields.
I just watched the NOVA “Welcome to Mars” program on PBS.org with my three kids.
I was great!
I kept looking for Dave to come on and speak… maybe next year.
