Happy 10th Birthday Opportunity Rover

[Ah Pook]

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1401/PIA17759_r950inset.jpg

On January 25 (UT) 2004, the Opportunity rover fell to Mars, making today the 10th anniversary of its landing (http://www.nasa.gov/jpl/mer/mer-news-20140123/index.html). After more than 3,500 sols (Mars solar days (http://www.giss.nasa.gov/research/briefs/allison_02/)) the golf cart-sized robot from Earth is still actively exploring the Red Planet (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Exploration_Rover), though its original mission plan was for three months (http://xkcd.com/695/). This self-portrait was made (http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/?IDNumber=PIA17759) with Opportunity's panoramic camera earlier this month. The camera's supporting mast has been edited out of the image mosaic but its shadow is visible on the dusty (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleaning_event) solar panels arrayed across the rover's deck. For comparison, a similar self-portrait from late 2004 (http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/?IDNumber=PIA07372) is shown in the inset. Having driven some 39 kilometers (24 miles) from its landing site, Opportunity now rests (http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status.html#opportunity) at Solander Point at the rim of Endeavour Crater.

http://milesobrien.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/10-marvin-the-martian.jpg

[Mtn.man]

It's lost 1 wheel and has some bent up structural damage, but damnit, it won't give up.

Till it finds where Obama really came from.

[Sharpienads]

So it went to Mars and took a selfie?

[Mtn.man]

http://fuse.pha.jhu.edu/~hart/Mars2004/mars_walmart.jpg

[sniper7]

Very cool stuff!

[SideShow Bob]

Still, this is not as impressive as as making a solar landing round trip in 18 hours...........

https://www.ar-15.co/threads/124659-WOW-N-Korea-is-super-Advanced

[Ah Pook]

Still, this is not as impressive as as making a solar landing round trip in 18 hours...........

https://www.ar-15.co/threads/124659-WOW-N-Korea-is-super-Advanced
Yeah but did Gong get a "selfie" of himself, on the sun, at night?

I didn't think so.

[Dave]

You will be hard pressed to find much that has given the US the return on investment more than the Mars Rover Program.

[merl]

You will be hard pressed to find much that has given the US the return on investment more than the Mars Rover Program.

That is quite debatable. The return to economy or day to day lives has been low. We now know much more about Mars but so what? Once we got past satellites the return dropped off fast.
I think our automated space probe program is a huge success but the libertarian in me keeps asking why we make people that don't care pay for it.

[Gman]

The exploratory missions haven't all been so successful.

For example...Mars Probe Lost Due to Simple Math Error (http://articles.latimes.com/1999/oct/01/news/mn-17288)

[KestrelBike]

You will be hard pressed to find much that has given the US the return on investment more than the Mars Rover Program.

The Hubble?

[Hound]

Its something to be very proud of unlike for China with this

http://io9.com/chinas-lunar-rover-may-have-experienced-a-catastrophic-1509710013

10 years vs not even a few months.. Ya, we are doing good.

[HoneyBadger]

Its something to be very proud of unlike for China with this

http://io9.com/chinas-lunar-rover-may-have-experienced-a-catastrophic-1509710013

10 years vs not even a few months.. Ya, we are doing good.
Looks like the Chinese rover did not have the Spirit to take advantage of this great Opportunity. It's now lost until an intrepid Pathfinder retrieves it and sells it to a museum, where it will remain a mere Curiosity.

In other related news, the USA once buried a mars lander so deep in the planet, it almost came out the other side because math is hard.

annnnnd:
http://mobile.extremetech.com/latest/142582-china-8217-s-lunar-rover-yutu-says-8216-goodnight-humanity-8217-in-creepy-farewell-letter-before-freezing-to-death

[Gman]

RE: the Chinese Moon Rover...

According to the Chinese State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence, the problem was the result of a "complicated surface environment."
"I don't understand this. It worked perfectly on the floor of the garage."

Wow, complex movements required for survival between daylight high and dark low temps. Somebody forgot something basic while this was still on paper.

[Gman]

The Hubble?
The Hubble has been useful, but wow, with all of the shuttle missions required to re-work and repair it....not sure it was worth that price tag.

[merl]

The Hubble has been useful, but wow, with all of the shuttle missions required to re-work and repair it....not sure it was worth that price tag.

I'd rank the Voyager programs way up there for space programs.
The solar observatory program has day to day benefit in being able to see large solar storms which can screw us over.

If we want to get into ROI of gov programs, there are a few I could list that had a huge initial ROI. The first few years when either starting from nothing or correcting major issues there is large benefit. Then they reach a point where the big returns have been reaped and they become pork or enforcement arms for pet policies.

[hatidua]

http://milesobrien.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/10-marvin-the-martian.jpg

An awfully long flight to end up somewhere that looks essentially like much of Arizona and Nevada.

[TFOGGER]

Or the Atacama Desert in south America...

http://news.softpedia.com/images/news2/The-Driest-Place-on-Earth-Atacama-Desert-2.jpg

Which they coincidentally use for testing Martian spacecraft systems....

[KestrelBike]

The Hubble has been useful, but wow, with all of the shuttle missions required to re-work and repair it....not sure it was worth that price tag.

But don't forget that something is probably learned with each of those repair shuttle missions; there's no such thing as bad experience. Maybe some critical knowledge was gained through those missions that might not have been learned had there not been a Hubble to serve as an excuse to go out there.