Opportunity: 10th year and counting

The twin rover Opportunity is entering its 10th year in operation on the red planet.
Not bad for a project expected to last 90 days.

Plenty of ATS members like to bash NASA and their intentions and no doubt many will do on this thread but the red planet is slowly but surely giving up her secrets thanks to the work of NASA and these amazing rovers.

Congratulations NASA, some of us do appreciate what you do.

Opportunity: 10th Year

Congrats opportunity. Ten years is an amazing feat. How long will nasa projects launched recently last? Makes you wonder

reply to post by welshreduk


I find it amazing that they were only looking at months for these two to last...technically the other one if I'm not mistaken is simply stuck? Shocking that we can't get some of the products we use here on earth to last as long..can you imagine all the circuits and electrical components that go into one of these? It is amazing...

Didn't realize it was ten years. Thanks. These rovers are some of the best things that have happened in space tech in a long long time. The Hubble too, of course, and the growing list of other space telescopes and instruments. Now if only the James Webb Telescope could get going faster.

The budgets for these "toys" should, imnho, be truly massive, not only in the US but throughout the world. Numerous rovers should be on the drawing board (dozens on Mars, some on Venus, the moons of Jupiter and Saturn, just put them everywhere) but military funding eats up the cash. I wish Bill Gates or someone in that income bracket would fund a few rovers and space telescopes. NASA thinks big but thinks too small as well, and so do the funding arms of government and private foundations. Scatter rovers like the wind, is what I say.