RIP Mars Opportunity rover

[TheSportsPredictor]

Longest-running rover outlives its expected lifespan by about 15 years.

NASA rover finally bites the dust on Mars after 15 years

 

[BTExpress]

Must be that healthy Martian air that kept it alive so long.

Otis Sistrunk's still kicking, however.

BTW, that headline is perfect, in that a dust storm is what doomed it.

 

[micropolitan guy]

Who built these rovers? What an advertising opportunity for quality workmanship.

 

[BTExpress]

I guess. But it does seem like a LOT of these pieces of hardware outperform their projected lives by an exponential amount.

I figure that's because they put out an extremely cautious initial estimate (everything after that is gravy), and there aren't really and points of reference to see how long the thing will do what you want it to do.

 

[spikechiquet]

Is this a "it died doing what it loved" situation?

Can a robot love?

Can a robot dream?

 

[playthrough]

You only write about us when we die in a dust storm on a faraway planet.

 

[swingline]

The crazy thing is, Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 are galavanting through interstellar space 41 years after they were launched. In 40,000 years, Voyager 1 will be within 1.6 light years of the star Gliese 445. Humans might be extinct by then. Hell, we might be extinct by next week.

 

[Starman]

Mars ain't no place to raise a rover. In fact, it's cold as hell.

 

[swingline]

Wonder what _____ lover Little Rocket Man thinks of today's news?

 

[Neutral Corner]

I guess. But it does seem like a LOT of these pieces of hardware outperform their projected lives by an exponential amount.

I figure that's because they put out an extremely cautious initial estimate (everything after that is gravy), and there aren't really and points of reference to see how long the thing will do what you want it to do.

NASA thought that it would be short lived due to Mars dust obscuring the solar cells. They had not counted on the Martian winds blowing the dust off. That said, the battery life given the number of recharges over fifteen years was incredible.

 

[da man]

The crazy thing is, Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 are galavanting through interstellar space 41 years after they were launched. In 40,000 years, Voyager 1 will be within 1.6 light years of the star Gliese 445. Humans might be extinct by then. Hell, we might be extinct by next week.

Will it run into to Enterprise by then?

 

[Azrael]