A DECADE: Tonight, a bit after dinner, we paused to ponder the fact that the United States has now had a continuous presence on Mars for a decade now, thanks to a robust rover program.
When Spirit landed on Mars back in , it had an original mission length of about 92 Earth days. However, the durable rover kept on rolling for 2695 days, before getting stuck in sandy soil in the spring of 2009.
Even when it was unable to rove anymore, Spirit worked on, analyzing geological samples at its location for months. In March of 2010, the final communication came from Spirit, marking the end of the mission. In all, it traveled 4.8 miles - 12 times its original projected distance.
This morning I received an email from the folks at the Planetary Society letting us know abou ta special "Rover Party" to mark the 10th anniversary on Mars. At planetary.org/roverparty, there are videos, games, trivia, and information about what Spirit did and what Opportunity continues to do on Mars.
CJ and Annabelle checked out the site today.
Also via the portal, people can send a personal message "to the scientists and engineers responsible for these remarkable roving robots," per the Planetary Society. "We'll be collecting messages throughout January, so there's plenty of time to get your friends and family to send messages, too," they say.
PUZZLED: Every so often, I get an email from Ralph, a gentleman who hosts an Internet based jigsaw puzzle site, letting me know he's used one of my photos for a puzzle. Today, he sent a 'happy New Year' message along, and a link to a tulip photo of mine that has been puzzle-fied.
AND ALSO: We spent a few more hours working around Rick's place today. Many, MANY technical difficulties, from drywall finish to wiring up some fixtures and a few other projects. It made me say bad words, and we cut our day short there. ;)
Gosh, it sounds like a remodeling project. :-0 And speaking of remodeling:
ReplyDelete"Things always take longer than they do." and
"Things always cost more than they do."