Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Remember the Rovers?


The Mars Rovers are the robots that were sent to Mars when today's juniors and seniors in high school were still in middle school. They had a three month mission. They've been at it about five years. In fact, just a month ago the rover Spirit celebrated its 2000th "sol", or Martian day. It's been experiencing some rough weather recently- dust storms.
Thr rover Opportunity, on the other hand, has been plodding away. In fact, in the photo below, you can see a photo of Opportunity taken by an orbiting satellite. If you look carefully, you can even see the wheel tracks it has left behind. Opportunity has travelled over 100 meters in a day. It is headed toward an interesting crater named Endeavor. At this rate, it will be thee in about two Earth years.

Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona

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