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OT - Oppertunity Mars Rover falls silent

adama

Diamond
Joined
Dec 28, 2004
Location
uk
Mars Opportunity: Rover 'should ride out storm' - BBC News

So the first time its fallen silent after 16 years untouched by humans for a machine made to last 90 days. That is some seriously impressive engineering and robotics if there ever was.

Not sure if this really fits in here, but this arguably has to be one of mankind's greatest robotic duration achievements in the environment its working in at the distances from us its doing it. Yes, other probes have floated further through space, encountered worst radiation etc, but this thing landed and has been driving around hands on exploreing in a way few other items in the history of man kind ever have.

Heres hoping one day we can recover Opportunity and its long since silent partner rover Spirit, because above all else they have inspired so many people with what they have accomplished.
 
Did anybody ever think that maybe, just maybe, the reason that the thing has worked so well for so long is because there
were no engineers involved in the project? :eek::D
 
Well its finally been called, the little rovers gone. What a result a productive 55x design life span.

The project was a inspiration to me as to what can be achieved on a relatively tight budget (compared to other space endevours). It drove further and at a greater distance from here than anything before it. It did drives across mars that took it over 3 years to reach a destination on a very small solar array.
 
I submit that is TERRIBLE engineering. But it shows what can be done with an unlimited budget. :)

Yeah spose thinking about it 55x design life is a pretty big fuck up, that's what 5500% out of tolerance?

It was only $400 million which is pretty cheap compared to most the other attempts.
 
The thing that will always be the most impressive to me is landing on the moon and bringing the crew back safely in 1969. Think about the technology they had to work with. They made that journey at a time when the pocket calculator had yet to be invented and a computer as strong as an early 70's scientific pocket calculator took up a whole room. CNC machining was in it's infancy and not widely used. To accomplish all that top to bottom with the technology of the time took some pretty smart dedicated people.
 
The crazy part is there is a planet in our solar system inhabited entirely by robots. I wonder if there is a robot heaven for them??
 








 
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