I heard on the radio this morning that NASA was going to put the Mars Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, to sleep as a result of budget cutting. Is this true? Is there any other recourse? 
points to dave… ask him.
Just saw this on Engadget… Maybe they will keep going after all!
I think that they should work the rovers until they don’t work anymore. The fact that they’ve lasted this long is amazing so why not work them until they “die”?
Ok I’m going to post the link once I find it again, but Spirit is going into Hibernation while Opportunity will cut its activity in half. There are a lot of mixed feelings about this.
EDIT: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080324/ap_on_sc/mars_rovers;_ylt=AjirvfT0cEHmK5kyVt51AUGs0NUE
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 suppose the only question now is, do we believe the news, and assume dave is messing with us, or believe dave, and assume the news is lying.
We believe both (by which I mean the news has caught up and now matches what Dave (the more reliable source) is telling us). Updated news story: http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/space/2008-03-25-mars-rovers-live_N.htm
Believe that Dave knows what he is talking about.
Dave has alot of fun, but Dave also loves talking about his 3 Month, 4 year 3 month and 21 day mission (I am sure i am off on the date and he will correct me :p) so if there were news about it and people were interested to know it, he would love to talk about it… so just wait patiently kids, when the man in the goofy shirt can talk about it he will
Dave always knows what he is talking about. However, his ways are sometimes mysterious.
Dave often delights in the confusion we inflict on ourselves by fuzzy thinking or baseless assumptions.
- now you’re talking…
Whew! I’m glad that the current report is that Spirit and Opportunity will continue their adventures! 
The reporter this morning likened the news to astronaut Dave Bowman trying to disconnect HAL in 2001 Space Odyssey. :ahh:
And on CNN also. I was about to have a cow! GO SPIRIT! GO OPPORTUNITY! LIVE STRONG!
Thank the Lord- my heart sank when I read that on the AP yesterday.
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?)
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.
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?!?”
[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]
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…