Tuesday, October 11, 2011

2816 days of Opportunity - A time-lapse video of its three year, 13 mile journey

dvice - Time lapse video shows rover's epic three-year trek across Mars

"Today is day 2,816 of Opportunity's 90 day mission to Mars. If you do the math on that, it means that we've been surprised by how awesome this robot is doing about 30 times over. It's traveled a staggering 20 miles over the last six or seven years, and JPL has put together this time-lapse of a three year, 13 mile section of that journey.

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At the moment, the rover is scheduled to stay up on the rim of Endeavor, investigating large blocks of ejected material that effectively allow the robot to "dig down" underneath the Martian surface. Getting all the way around the rim of the crater will likely take the robot many more years, and if it successfully completes an entire circuit, I think we can all agree that it'll finally be time to let it come home.

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I believe space, the leaving of this rock we call Earth, is a necessary and required step in our evolution as a species... that and I think it's cool. Forget buying an island, I want my own asteroid!

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