A milestone on Mars

Chris Eldridge — Wed, 09 Aug 2006 00:42:28 GMT

Wow! the long trek for Oppy through trackless sand sure seems to have finnally paid off!!! Great Job!

A milestone on Mars

Albatross, San Antonio, Texas — Wed, 09 Aug 2006 04:16:38 GMT

I love these rovers. They are truly marks of the amazing capabilities of humanity, and we should all be proud of their accomplishments.

A milestone on Mars

Marty Cox — Wed, 09 Aug 2006 04:23:04 GMT

A great success for NASA. Cheap and effective.

A milestone on Mars

Duane Aiuppy — Wed, 09 Aug 2006 13:09:10 GMT

These two rovers are a Godsend for NASA. After a dark time fraught with setbacks, failures, mistakes and doubts. Spirit and Opportunity have really come to showcase NASA's ability to still engineer great scientific advances, all the while keeping them humming right along long after there "use by dates" despite several unforseen difficulties and a trimmed budget.

The science and research data that has been already culminated is definetly priceless, but I think the greatest asset to come from these martian rovers' success is the renewed faith and respect that NASA has receieved from the american puiblic, the science community and its Congressional overseers. Hopefully, NASA can use that goodwill as a spring board to design and approve even greater projects and missions that are just beyond the horizon.

Here's to a few more years of Rover madness on the sandy dunes of Mars!

A milestone on Mars

Lilly K — Wed, 09 Aug 2006 13:28:54 GMT

Excellent! Glad to know they are still a tickin! Go Science!

A milestone on Mars

Buzz Armstrong, Houston, AL 35572 — Wed, 09 Aug 2006 13:56:11 GMT

Rocks are rocks - it's been a great mission but it's time to pull the plug and move on to something else.

A milestone on Mars

lucy mendoza, lawrenceville, Ga — Wed, 09 Aug 2006 13:56:56 GMT

this is so neat how everyday im reminded more and more that we really are the future..! all im waitin on now is the flying cars...lol

A milestone on Mars

Bugs — Wed, 09 Aug 2006 14:41:54 GMT

Have they found Marvin yet?

A milestone on Mars

John Tuer, Palm Bay, Florida — Wed, 09 Aug 2006 15:12:11 GMT

What these rovers and the teams who run them have accomplished is truly amazing. Calling it a bargain is an understatement. At a cost of about $3.00 per person spread out over many years it is practically free. My day is not complete without checking the Rover web site. The whole country should be proud of what JPL has accomplished on this and its other missions. This mission will be remembered and its discoveries analyzed for many years to come.

A milestone on Mars

rajagopal,mumbai,india — Wed, 09 Aug 2006 15:42:08 GMT

spirit and endurance ... apt names for the american attitudes to life

A milestone on Mars

paul haney, Pittsburgh, PA — Wed, 09 Aug 2006 16:21:58 GMT

Unlike the baser pursues of man, such as war, the science community demonstrates loftier accomplishments which the human race can and does achieve.

A milestone on Mars

R. Radina - St. Louis, MO — Wed, 09 Aug 2006 16:47:09 GMT

The names are Spirit and Opportunity.

A milestone on Mars

RouterEyes — Wed, 09 Aug 2006 16:51:44 GMT

To Marty: CHEAP? Does $800 Million seem chump change to you? I am all for science and discovery but I had no idea these rovers were so expensive! With technology becoming more advanced and cheaper, I can't believe we have spent so much money on this one project. Hopefully we can do a better job next time. Ouch!

A milestone on Mars

Shawn Silverstein, Los Angeles, California — Wed, 09 Aug 2006 17:31:03 GMT

These Rovers are really amazing pieces of American machinery. Throughout their operating lives, I have been intrigued and fascinated by their many pictures and discoveries. I hope there is plenty more to come....

A milestone on Mars

John Doe, Seattle, Wash. — Wed, 09 Aug 2006 18:36:43 GMT

...someday they will be brought back to earth and displayed ina museum as the pair that (finally, after so much political junk) opened the door to full featured mars exploration.

A milestone on Mars

buyerguy - Vermont — Wed, 09 Aug 2006 18:42:39 GMT

Are they doing any deeper investigations on the planet? Can they try something new to see what happens? I think the things NASA has done with the two Rovers is amazing. Let us pray they learn from it and achieve greater success. To the future of mankind....

A milestone on Mars

Wade Whitlock, Aberdeen, MD — Wed, 09 Aug 2006 18:57:35 GMT

Everready - Eat your heart out! The design team should get a very public award. Regardless of how you amortise the cost $/mile, $/day - we got one hell of a bargain with these two!

The only thing better would be footprints in the Martian dust, and I regret that they won't be mine! Actually, my regret is not being able to leave skate tracks on the frozen canals! [Red Planet by Heinlein]

A milestone on Mars

Mike C, Westfield, MA — Wed, 09 Aug 2006 19:30:32 GMT

I think 800 Million is Cheap for such an accompishment. We've spent over 250 Billion in Iraq and haven't learned anything.

A milestone on Mars

Red Pill Junkie — Wed, 09 Aug 2006 20:09:48 GMT

Why isn't NASA sending more of these rovers? Wouldn't it be great to have 20 rovers doing science on Mars by 2020?

A milestone on Mars

JB, California — Wed, 09 Aug 2006 21:08:55 GMT

This is great! And the declining costs of operation should help future missions plan ways to keep costs relatively low. Well done, all the way around!

$800 million is chump change for an interplanetary mission with two separate landers. You can't just pull components off the shelf at hobby shop and have them work in deep space. Further, landing anything on Mars requires an incredible effort - either huge amounts of expensive fuel (Viking), or hairline precision in low-pressure aerodynamic planning.

In short, it _is_ rocket science, and true exploratory rocket science isn't cheap.

That said, the Mars Exploration Rovers have likely returned more useful scientific data-per-dollar than any previous lander, on any extraterrestrial body in the solar system. Rock on, JPL.

A milestone on Mars

Mark Brown, Portland, OR — Wed, 09 Aug 2006 21:53:55 GMT

Fantastic! If only all government projects paid off as handsomely...

A milestone on Mars

Robert — Wed, 09 Aug 2006 21:56:52 GMT

We tend to forget that these rovers are often doing more per day that the vikings did during their entire main mission, and they cost LESS than the vikings did. And they just keep on going. Rocks are not just rocks. This is a whole world to explore, and who knows what they'll find under the next rock.... A fossil would be AWESOME!

A milestone on Mars

Frank Glover, Rochester, NY — Wed, 09 Aug 2006 23:27:50 GMT

'Buzz,' I submit that your attention span is too short. No one ever promised the Universe would give up all its secrets quickly....and in any case, there are plenty of other space probes doing interesting things, if Mars is to slow for you.

'RouterEyes,' remember the point of this entire logging. Three years of performance out of equipment planned to last a minimum of 90 days. If they stopped functioning tomorrow, we *still* would've gotten our money's worth from them in terms of basic research.

A milestone on Mars

Ray Smith,Shippensburg, PA — Thu, 10 Aug 2006 05:22:16 GMT

The best thing of all is that NASA has allowed us the privilege to look over their shoulder at the results and with so much data they have invited us, the citizens of this planet, to help them discover facts about mars, which may well help us learn so much more about Earth. I am watching for the slightest hint that life was on mars....thanks to the robotic telepresence life that is there now!!

A milestone on Mars

Jeff — Thu, 10 Aug 2006 07:57:14 GMT

The cost for Spirit and Opportunity is cheap by any measure simply because each individual on this planet can share in the results obtained should they choose to do so. However, I believe the real benefits are not well-defined. Certainly the technical capabilities of man and machine getting the job done have been successful. But, I question the benefits of the data collection over the long-term.

I seriously doubt that Mars will benefit the human species in any significant way until Mars is used as a building block to build a second home. That likely means that all Spirit and Opportunity are surveying will be buried by mined materials from the Kuiper belt. It may take a million years. It may take a 100,000 years before folks realize building a bigger Mars is a requirement!

A milestone on Mars

f symons, ghent belgium — Thu, 10 Aug 2006 23:37:59 GMT

the question remains: is there life on mars? near the poles, beneath the surface, where airpockets or gaspockets are stocked, eventually with near to liquid water. And who will benefit from eventual finds in another fifty years : Nasa (the USA), China, Japan, India, Europe or Russia. Probably the entire world sooner or later if any major discovery will be made, with other mars rovers. Spirit and Opportunity, the Rolling Stones of Mars, first decade of the 21st century. Definitely expensive, but worth $ 800 million!

A milestone on Mars

KG, Dallas — Fri, 11 Aug 2006 14:25:34 GMT

Everyone, please take a look at the picture of Beagle Crater above. That looks to me like an ancient rocky beach. At the lower right of the picture, there is a line in the sediment that really looks like a tide line of sorts.

A milestone on Mars

Lisa, The Backside of Beyond, CA — Sat, 12 Aug 2006 04:40:17 GMT

$800M <i>is</i> chump change for <i>any</i> government project! When you consider that they're spending at least that much every day in pork projects like highways to nowhere, Spirit Opportunity are certainly cost effective!

As for studying rocks is concerned, I know some geologists and paleontologists who devote their entire working lives analysing rocks. There is always more to learn about our planet and its nearest sibling. Like Wade Whitlock, I regret not being able to leave skate tracks on the frozen canals of Mars, and maybe to be adopted by a Martian similar to Willis. [RIP Bob Heinlein, wherever you are!]

A milestone on Mars

Chris Eldridge — Mon, 14 Aug 2006 05:00:12 GMT

800 million isn't cheap and we really do have to be careful how we spend it. Funding a two-year mission on Mars with two rovers is money well spent (as is the similar amount of money spent on the new recon orbiter)! Paying this same amount for a mere two-week flyby of PLUTO, however, is NOT! The argument that it was the only planet we haven't visited isn't even true anymore and I am hopeful that the VLT interferometer will be able to get the necessary measurements they are after.

For what we spent on Pluto we may very well have been able to keep the Europa mission alive. Visiting Europa should be our next primary orbiter / lander mission provided that it is MORE than just an echo sounding mission to test the thickness of the ice or to prove there is a sub surface ocean. NASA has no spirit of exploration in this regard as they are never willing to just make a logical assumption that Europa has a sub surface ocean (or that Mars had water) - even after all the Galileo data, they still said it wasn't the smoking gun and still want a mission just to test for it. We aren’t getting any younger and talk like that is more to preserve their job and program, than true exploration. The ice that has welled up to the surface should contain the contents of the ocean below and with a simply penetrater type lander we could do a quick check for DNA and content…

I’m not sure what is the mission of the new polar lander headed to mars but it better be more than just to check for the existence of water!

A milestone on Mars

Win Kyaw, Yangon, Myanmar — Mon, 21 Aug 2006 02:39:50 GMT

mars can be seen with our naked eyes in this month of Aug? How big the size be ? Is there any danger of tidal waves in the oceans on Earth?

A milestone on Mars

Alan Boyle — Mon, 21 Aug 2006 04:13:18 GMT

Actually, Win, this is about the worst time to look for Mars. The message that's been going around the Internet in the past couple of months has to do with the 2003 encounter, and this year it's actually something of a hoax. Thus, there's no additional risk of larger tidal waves due to Mars ... this year or any other year. Even the 2003 encounter had basically no effect. I guess it's time to write the "Mars Encounter Debunked" item again for this year. All the best to you in Yangon, Myanmar (which I grew up knowing as Rangoon, Burma).

A milestone on Mars

Alvie C. Beck II, Arkansas — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 15:35:07 GMT

I do not believe anything found on Mars (i.e. "life") represents Earth. I base that upon my biblical principles and I am sure many people will counter this post, as is your freedom in the USA! If you do, do not be so closed minded that leaves out the possibility of God or Creation. All scientific finds thus far can be explained by both Creation AND Evolution. (But this is not the main thing I want to say.)

I pray I will be alive when a space mission returns Opportunity, Spirit, Sojourner and or Viking I/II. Would that not just be the cat's meow! Imagine 20-30 years from now if a MER is still operating: An image of man approaching the rover! Talk about a TIME magazine cover of the Century!!!!!

One other thing that this $800+ million paid for. . .Both MER's operate by solar cells. Vikings I/II contained a nuclear reactor. Unfortunately, the early NASA planners did not have today’s technology to avoid this. WHEN we arrive and begin populating Mars, this will be an unfortunate and expensive problem to clean up.

If/when we ever do launch another pair of rovers, I would like to see the critters navigate to each other. Award a prize to the first team to “laser tag” the other! Can someone call the Ansari folks on this one?

Last, it is wonderful to think my children, or at least my grandchildren, will have an opportunity to step foot on Mars. No one can argue that we do not live in amazing times! God Bless America!

A milestone on Mars

philbob, brigham city, utah — Thu, 24 Aug 2006 16:57:10 GMT

Way to go NASA! It's gratifying to know that every once in a while you people catch a break and produce something so worthwhile. Imagine something designed to last for only 90 days that has lasted for over three years! Could we have imagined all of the extra knowledge we have gained of our sister planet by having the rovers hang around as long as they have?! Great job!

A milestone on Mars

Harold Kennedy,Apple Valley, Ca — Thu, 24 Aug 2006 17:40:19 GMT

Anytime we add to man's knowledge it is a good thing. Does this mean we may have to spend some money? Sure but hopefully the money is spent wisely. The rover missions are an example of money spent wisely. I hope that NASA can contiue to plan and execute projects such as this in the future.

A milestone on Mars

Blaine Scott — Thu, 24 Aug 2006 18:23:56 GMT

I think it's time to start sending people back to the moon to train for a manned mission to Mars. Now is a good time to do it while the men who landed on the moon originally are still alive and can assist in the new projects. Technology is way better than what existed during the Apollo missions and could be much safer.

A milestone on Mars

Katie, Towson, Maryland — Fri, 25 Aug 2006 13:55:46 GMT

We can't just shoot humans over to Mars-we don't know enough about the environment. Our tornadoes and hurricanes seem like childsplay to Mars' weather systems. Not to mention, a shuttle would take a minimum of six months to reach Mars. By that time, who knows how strong the astronauts would be, and if they could handle the tasks set before them. They would then have to make that trek back another six months. That's a year without Earth's gravity. We don't know what kind of damage that could do to the astronauts onboard. Then, there's always the issue of timing-there are very specific times when we can launch a flight. Missing that deadline would ruin the mission. Although I love the idea of humans on Mars, I don't see it happening any time soon, unless the various independant and government funded space agencies combine their resources and ideas. Until then, let's send more rovers and other equipment for further testing!!! Go Spirit and Opportunity!

A milestone on Mars

Jam, Kansas City, Mo — Fri, 25 Aug 2006 14:49:54 GMT

Lets understand something, sending people into space, just into orbit, is very expensive, almost prohibitively so compared to remote machines. Unless the public gets the stars out of their eyes and NASA drops their half lame ideas of sending people into space and wakes up to the true potenital of robotics, manned space exploration as we know it will die out within a decade. Its in the money, people! I'm not making this up! NASA should spend their time developing FAR better launch vehicles than anything they have on the drawing board now, and not be in a big rush to return to the moon or beyond until such a time as it is far safer and less costly. Dont believe me? Just read some of the above on what two tiny rovers are doing on Mars and for how little money compared to ONE shuttle flight. Surely, humans will one day spread out into space, but robotics should be the wave of space exploration for the forseeable future.

A milestone on Mars

Nh Tx — Fri, 25 Aug 2006 18:42:13 GMT

Its all fake. We have been on mars since 1947. There is life there. It was Humans! We are now in the new Mars. Its called Earth.

A milestone on Mars

Mark Weisberg, Houston, TX — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 22:55:37 GMT

I have mixed opinions on our plans for missions into deep space (that is, beyond earth/lunar orbit). 1. Considering the inefficiencies of our current earth to orbit and orbit to planet launch systems, it does not appear to be very cost effective - or safe - to send properly equipped manned missions very far past the moon (although there may be some speedy asteroid and planetary gravity assist/braking flyby profiles to some combination of Venus and Mars that would be fast enough for non-landing, manned missions). 2. Considering the increasing efficiencies of small remote controlled and pre-programmed probes, it would appear to be a cost effective solution to be running many missions per decade to the moon and the asteroids/planets - while developing more efficient launch and deep space propulsion systems that benefit all programs - and to use the ISS and our eventual Moon visits to hone our technologies to survive deep space missions. 3. Why do we hear so little about the development and testing of exotic technologies, including solar sails, ion and plasma propulsion systems? Can somebody out there summarize what significant incremental improvements have been made to the performance or unit costs of conventional rockets over the past thirtyfive years? The only real creativity I have seen in recent years is Rutan's work, the T/Space CXV proposals, the Bigelow inflatable habitat, and arguably, the Pegasus launch system. The "fastest" mission running (Jupiter/Pluto) is going to require nine years to reach Pluto - with a gravity assist from Jupiter! I no longer dream of Clarke's 2001 and 2010 technologies, Star Trek's warp drive or Babylon 5's hyperspace gates. I'll settle for some breakthrough that drives the cost per pound into orbit by a factor of ten and reduces trip time to the moon to hours instead of days, and transit time to Mars or Venus to weeks instead of months.