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I too get annoyed at seeing this fun fact. It's really hard to engineer something that will last 90 days. It's much easier to overbuilld it, which fulfills th
by blhack 8y ago
I too get annoyed at seeing this fun fact.
It's really hard to engineer something that will last 90 days. It's much easier to overbuilld it, which fulfills the requirement of 90 days.
It was designed to last as long as possible within the given weight and size budget.
- dogma1138 8y agoYep one of the reasons that it lasted so long was that it was too small for an RTG so as long as it the solar panels were still somewhat intact it could operate even if the battery would essentially be completely dead. The 90 day figure is simply the time period for which NASA asked for money to operate the thing no one is going to ask for 2, 5 not to mention 15 years worth of operating budget you usually get a few months at the time and extend it based on your needs.