It's been over 4 years since the Mars Exploration Rovers (MER), known as Spirit and Opportunity touched down ...er, bounced?...onto the Red Planet. The rovers were expected to be able to survive for 90 days. Four years later, they're still plugging along, albeit with some technical difficulties. Wish the battery on my iPhone would last that long!
I clearly remember the days when these marvels of engineering touched down. Back in those days, my stupid cable company did one thing right...they gave me the NASA channel. I remember watching the team at Mission Control when they realized that the first rover had landed safely. At that moment, I would have given a lot to be able to work for NASA or JPL! I can't recall the last time *I* felt such joy and a sense of satisfaction at my job!
(My stupid cable company took my NASA channel away a long time ago. I miss it. Watching it on computer is just not the same.)
You can get current reports of our dear rovers at: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/mer/index.html
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