Happy Fifth Birthday, Spirit!
I'll bet you were wondering just who (or what) the heck Spirit is. LOL! Well, Spirit is the Mars Rover that landed on Mars five years ago today. Twenty-one days later Opportunity (a second rover) joined Spirit on Mars. It was hoped that these two rovers would last at least 3 months...... That was five years ago! Not that the two haven't had problems. Poor Spirit can only go backwards now, and Opportunity has a problem with one of his arms. They've also had a few power problems. Both rovers get their power from the sun using solar panels. Dust tends to cover up the panels causing a power shortage.
Still, all things considered, these two tough little rovers have definitely gone above and beyond. Want to get the whole story? Click Here for the BBC News article. And Here for some photos sent back by Spirit and Opportunity. Things like this just fascinate me.
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8 comments:
I love it when you post, but posts like this make me realize how clueless I am. Great story!
I love following the adventures on Mars with our Rovers... I'm thinking it won't be long before the dust has covered up the Spirit's lenses and no more pictures will be had. Fascinating, indeed. Maybe next time they'll work in a feature to automatically clean the camera lenses, you know, like we have windshield wipers??? You think? Happy Birthday, Spirit!
you GO little computer on wheels!
great story.. believe it or not.. I do remember reading about this somewhere.. I actually knew what you were talking about..LOL..
thanks for sharing..
Kelly~
LOL, and when I first read the headline I figured...a horse? a dog? A poor child serving a life with a strange name?
Ok, so then Happy B-day Spirit, may your time on Mars continue to be less dusty and full of sun....
Gee, I thought she is seeing spirits like I am, I need to go there, but it was just as nice to have you referring to Spirit on Mars. I just watched the documentary on PBS on them, and they said one could only go backwards, but what miracles they are. What a story. I used to name my cars. The little Mars explorer certainly deserves this name. Nice entry. Gerry
interesting... thanks for sharing as I had no idea it has been 5 years.
hugs
they need "cooler" names like.. like... Wall-E! :o)
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