Los Angeles – The warranty expired long ago on NASA’s twin robots motoring across Mars.
In two years, they have traveled a total of 7 miles. Not impressed? Try keeping your car running in a climate where the average temperature is 67 degrees below zero and where dust devils can reach 100 mph.
These two golf-cart-sized vehicles were expected to last only three months.
“These rovers are living on borrowed time. We’re so past warranty on them,” said Steven Squyres of Cornell University, the mission’s principal researcher.
The rover Spirit landed on Mars on Jan. 3, 2004, and Opportunity followed Jan. 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.
Part of the reason for their long survival is pure luck. Their lives were extended several times by dust devils that blew away dust that covered their solar panels, restoring their ability to generate electricity.
The overachieving Opportunity dazzled scientists from the start. It eclipsed its twin by making the mission’s first profound discovery – evidence of water at or near the surface eons ago that could have implications for life.
The rock-climbing Spirit went down in the history books by becoming the first robot to scale an extraterrestrial hill. Last summer, it completed a daredevil climb to the summit of Husband Hill – as tall as the Statue of Liberty – despite fears that it might not survive the weather.
The rovers haven’t been all get-up and go – technical hiccups have at times limited their activity, even from the start. Last spring, Opportunity got stuck hub-deep in sand while trying to crest a foot-high dune and was freed after weeks of effort by Earth-bound engineers.
Three times NASA has extended the rovers’ mission, spending an extra $84 million on top of the $820 million original price tag.
