Mars rovers prepare for a dramatic last act

[CShine]

Well past their expiration dates, NASA's two Mars rovers are still sifting through the far-off dust for signs of water, and for the first time since the mission began six months ago, both stand on the brink of discovery.

The success of Opportunity on the dark, pockmarked plains of Meridiani is well documented - first finding evidence of past liquid water, then discovering that its site was once the shore of a long- vanished sea. Spirit, however, has suffered from one near-fatal technical glitch and a neighborhood of dust and rocks only slightly more exotic than a Wal-Mart parking lot. That should change this week. As Opportunity tips its wheels into a stadium-size crater in a Martian kamikaze mission, Spirit will arrive at an intriguing range of hills two miles from where it landed. Each rover promises potential breakthroughs, and both look healthy enough to continue working into September, if all goes well.

For Opportunity, which could become trapped in its slick-stoned crater, the chance to look deeper into Meridiani's watery past - and see if conditions were favorable for life - would be a fitting epitaph to a remarkable mission. For Spirit, after months of frustration, the ancient rocks of the highlands offer a last lifeline for scientists to answer the question that led them there: Was this basin once a vast Martian ocean?

"Two of the biggest events of the mission are happening almost at the same time," says Steve Squyres, lead scientist for the rovers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "It's like the mission is starting all over again."

http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0609/p01s02-usgn.html

[central scrutinizer]

1. they need to etch a likeness of Reagan into the Martian surface

large enough to be seen by the naked eye from Earth. Anything less and the terrorists will have won.

[DS1]

2. They've already slated 36 MX Missiles for launch into low earth orbit

so we can have a new constellation, and the glorious eye of Ronald looking down upon us.

[GarySeven]

3. Nothing short of ...

Carving the moon into a giant bust of the Gipper will appropriately honor the memory of the Greatest Human Being who ever lived.

And let's change the national motto to "Well, there you go again."

[frylock]

4. thanks for the laugh!

worthy of a :kick: