SlashNOT

Matthew writes: NASA has become increasingly vocal about it’s dismay over the longevity of the Martian rovers Spirit and Opportunity. Mars exploration program manager Orlando Figueroa had this to say about the durability of the rovers:

“These rovers were designed to operate for 3 months. We’re over 24 months now—that’s almost ten times longer than they were supposed to last. Yeah, it was all fun at first, what with Spirit’s boot problems at all, and it was great when they lasted longer than three months, you know, in theory, just to show that we can make things that last as long as their supposed to.”

“But seriously, you try maintaining a 24.5 hour long days over the course of two years. My sex life is totally gone man. I leave at what I think is 10:00 p.m., open the back door and get totally blasted by noonday sun. This was supposed to be a few months gig for me, and it’s turning into a damned career.”

“It’s not like the public is going to let us abandon two perfectly good rovers because we’re tired of staring at rocks all day, so our budget is totally blown out of the water. What are we giving up to pay for the continued operations? We could be blowing up asteroids or dropping probes on Venus—you know, going where no rover has gone before.”