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As is tradition! With the exception of the Sojourner in 1997, all of the American rover missions have far outlasted their expected lifetimes. Spirit and Opport
by civilitty 3y ago
As is tradition! With the exception of the Sojourner in 1997, all of the American rover missions have far outlasted their expected lifetimes.
Spirit and Opportunity were only supposed to last about 90 days each but ended up operating for six and fifteen (!!) years respectively before failing (Spirit got stuck in sand and Opportunity didn’t wake up after a dust storm). Curiosity and Perseverance were both designed to last 687 days and both are still running, the former for over a decade past its lifetime.
It’s the 10 million mile warranty and NASA still exceeds expectations. Pulling that off with a remote piloted copter on another planet is something else though!
- wolverine876 3y agoNASA is simultaneously incredible at three things: Arguably the best in human history at researching, developing, and deploying novel, past-the-bleeding edge technology; by orders of magnitude, the greatest explorers ever; and sales. The only reason General Motors doesn't tell you your car will last 90 days and give you a 90 day warranty - and then brag about how it's lasted 10 years - is that nobody would buy it. NASA can say whatever they like and we buy it.
- hackeraccount 3y agoIs this a good or a bad thing? If the limiting factor for a rover on Mars is transportation or the launch window then it's probably unambiguously good. Hypothetically though what if there's a trade off where you can have 1 rover that (however long it's announced it will last for) goes for 5 years vs. another that actually runs 1 year and then stops but you get 5 of the 1 year rovers. It's not immediately clear to me which is a better situation.