[extropy-chat] Mars rovers RIP?

[Amara Graps]

Spike:
>Oh ye of little faith.  These rovers are a Lockheeed Martin
>product.  {8-]

The optics would degrade, however those are fixable with an
occasional Martian dust storm  ...  :-)

>When these birds last this long, the programs end up with
>an embarrassing problem.  They need to come up with funding
>to keep someone interpreting the new unexpected data.  The
>slave labor (graduate students) move on, but there is still
>valuable data coming down every day.

Yes. Or the PIs continue working 16 hour days. (My best friend
is married to a MER PI, I saw how insanely he works.)

Amara

-- 

Amara Graps, PhD
Istituto di Fisica dello Spazio Interplanetario (IFSI)
Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF), Roma, ITALIA
Amara.Graps at ifsi.rm.cnr.it