NASA's older Mars rover notches another milestone

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

NASA's older Mars rover notches another milestone

4a.m. EST January 21, 2013

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Opportunity, NASA's other Mars rover, has tooled around the red planet for so long it's easy to forget it's still alive.

Some 5,000 miles away from the limelight surrounding Curiosity's every move, Opportunity this week quietly embarks on its tenth year of exploration — a sweet milestone since it was only tasked to work for three months.

"Opportunity is still going. Go figure," said mission deputy principal investigator Ray Arvidson of Washington University in St. Louis.

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After so many years crater-hopping, Opportunity is showing its age: It has an arthritic joint in its robotic arm and it drives mostly backward due to a balky front wheel — more annoyances than show-stoppers.

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Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/sciencefair/2013/01/21/nasas-older-mars-rover-notches-another-milestone/1850777/

[Xipe Totec]

1. I'm not dead yet! I'm getting better! nt

[DetlefK]

2. "Back in my day, we didn't have fancy lasers!"

"We used alpha-particles to study rocks!"

[sakabatou]

4. Hipster robots.

[Paulie]

5. Back in my day we just banged the rocks together

[sakabatou]

3. I was a Mars rover once

Till sand and grit got in my "knee."

BOO!

[Odin2005]

6. Energizer has a new mascot!