Rovers still exploring the Red Planet

The warranty expired long ago on NASA?s twin robots motoring around Mars. These two golf cart-sized vehicles were only expected to last three months. In two years, they have travelled a total of seven miles.

The warranty expired long ago on NASA’s twin robots motoring around Mars. These two golf cart-sized vehicles were only expected to last three months. In two years, they have travelled a total of seven miles. “These rovers are living on borrowed time. We’re so past warranty on them,” says Steven Squyres of Cornell University, the Mars mission’s principal researcher.

“You try to push them hard every day because we’re living day-to-day.” The rover ‘Spirit’ landed on Mars on January 3, 2004, and ‘Opportunity’ followed on January 24. Since then, they’ve set all sorts of records and succeeded in the mission’s main assignment: finding geologic evidence that water once flowed on Mars.

Their lives were extended several times by dust devils that blew away dust that covered their solar panels, restoring their ability to generate electricity. In two years, Spirit has travelled over three miles and beamed back 70,000 images including self-portraits and panoramas of the rust-coloured planet’s surface. Opportunity has driven over four miles and transmitted more than 58,000 images.

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