I don’t want Jesus to come back, I’d much prefer to see Mars Rover Opportunity rise from the dead. It’s been silent for almost 3 months as a massive dust storm prevented its solar panels from charging, but that storm is finally subsiding, so there’s hope it will recharge and start transmitting again.
It’s been working for 14 years, which is amazing. I’ve had cars that lasted that long, but we brought them in for tune-ups every year. It’s sister robot, Spirit, went dead in 2010. Mars Rover Curiosity landed in 2012 and is still cruising around. These robots are a pretty good deal — I don’t think an astronaut would last anywhere near as long, and he’d be too busy growing poop potatoes to get much science done.
I had somehow missed the fact that there was another rover on Mars. Go Curiosity!
If Jesus does come back I would hope he would have the decency to use his miracle powers to resurrect Opportunity.
Wait a minute … Jesus also wandered around in the desert for years, never traveling too many miles from home. So, I mean, are we sure about this? Has anyone ever seen them in the same room together?
IIRC, the rovers were designed to work for 90, maybe 180 days. That they have lasted as long as they have(did) is truly amazing, and I hope Opportunity has the opportunity to continue exploring for many more years. Hell, I hope it’s there to give us a ground’s-eye view of the landing of our first human Mars explorers. I know that may be a tad (ok, ok… WAAAAAY) optimistic, but after all, the Voyager probes are still sending us data.
Jesus never sent back any photos. Not even a cheap postcard from Jericho to his mom (“Enjoying the sights here. Beautiful weather. Restored sight to a blind person yesterday. Wish you were here! Love to Dad.”)
Crossing tentacles for a phone home by Opportunity.
If Opportunity rising from the dead is amazing wait until it returns to Earth on clouds of Glorious Data.
Ragutis @4 – That would be spectacular to have Opportunity record the descent of the first humans to Mars, but I doubt it would be possible, even if the rover continues to function until then. At this point, Opportunity has taken a very detailed survey of its immediate area, so the science return of have humans visit the same place would likely be quite small.
Also, if you want to be really impressed with how this little beast has continued its trek across Mars, do a Google image search for “Opportunity Rover wheels”. Those things look like they were used in a skeet shooting competition, then stuck on rover right before liftoff.
https://xkcd.com/1504/
also [sigh]
https://xkcd.com/695/
Maybe it discovered the location of the Rebel base. Wasn’t it’s last transmission something that sounded like a garbled “governor Bangerter…. governor Bangerter”?
“its” damnit
A human could get far more done in a fraction of the time. Robots are still cool though.
There was a false signal in mid-August, False alarm: Here’s why people thought Opportunity phoned home last week.
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It has imaged many locations. It has not sampled, drilled, imaged other locations, or had its “ground truth” confirmed.
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Yes & no. At the present time, a human could “operate” for a far far shorter interval of time. and must alive, and be returned alive. The robot is, in comparison, “limited”, but it keeps on going. And going. And going. And…
And may or may or have not have been “killed” by a planet-wide duststorm. A human mission, or settlement (colony), might be far more challenged…
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(Apologies, I’m currently listening to the BBC’s TMS, with what seems to be another Ingerland collapse, in yet another amusing fashion…)
And for anyone who needs a good ugly cry about a machine millions of km from here:
https://i.imgur.com/AQkO78Z.jpg
A three-month dust storm?
If NASA wants to send humans to Mars who can survive there, they better start recruiting some Bedouins.