The Spirit Mars rover, now in its 6th year of what was originally planned as a 3 month mission, is beginning to show signs of computer alzheimers. This past weekend the rover failed to send its signal to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory as scheduled.
The lack of a signal from the little guy on Mars prompted the staff into overdrive as they sent messages to the rover trying to figure out what may have happened. On Tuesday of this week JPL finally heard from Spirit after technicians had ordered the work-horse to point itself toward the Sun. Spirit eventually responded with a message that stated it was unable to find the Sun and was lost.
While technicians aren’t too concerned about this new glitch in Spirit’s memory, they continue to monitor the rover’s progress and still maintain control of its functions.
The other rover on Mars is Opportunity. It is healthy and all subsystems are performing as expected on the other side of the Red Planet. As of December 17, 2008 Opportunity has logged approximately 8.46 miles on Mars. Spirit’s mileage is about half that at 4.68 miles of Mars covered since landing 6 years ago.
You know, when something lasts *12 times* longer than expected, a few bugs are bound to crop up. Imagine if we had 60 year old cars running perfectly after no maintenance……..
Of course, that means that Windows was designed for a 5 minute lifespan….
Unable to find the Sun and was lost? Isn’t he also the one with one wheel busted, and dragging? Oh man, how sad. I picture something looking like WALL*E, one wheel dragging lame behind him, sad, lonely little thing. Now he’s confused, and can’t even find the Sun. Poor wittle guy.
Vista must have had a nano-second expected lifespan… huh?
No, this means that Windows 7 (the fix for Vista that is rumored to be released sometime this year) was designed for no lifespan and will be with us for the next 15 years.