Source: NASA will keep trying to contact stalled Mars rover Opportunity Opportunity and its twin rover, Spirit, are a pair of unmanned robotic vehicles designed by NASA to move short distances on the Martian surface and transmit data about conditions there back to Earth. They landed on Mars in 2003 on a mission meant to last 90 days and span 1,000 yards (meters). Spirit lasted 20 times longer than that. It became stuck in soft soil in 2009, and its mission was formally declared over in 2011. Opportunity is going on 60 times its planned mission life, has traveled 28 miles (45 kilometers) and found evidence of water on Mars and conditions that may have been suitable for sustaining microbial life. One of my favorite, network assignments was setting up the link between the rover control center in San Diego and the nearest NASA center, JPL. Cost was the driving factor but there were technical requirements: 45 mbs - primary payload data circuit with voice and rover control with priority QoS 1.5 mbs - failover voice and rover control circuit with priority Qos 4-wire, voice interfaces at each end routed to the JPL mission phone network 'hoot-and-hollar' voice over IP Asymetric routers, circuits, and wiring to stay within budget About 3-4 years later, the routers had reached end-of-life and another engineer replaced everything with larger, more modern routers and circuits. Bob Wilson
The Mars dust storm was real bummer as far as telescope view during the recent close approach to Earth, not to mention loss of the Rover. apparently we might have a nice comet in December....fingers crossed.
Kepler ending its epic planet hunt at about the same time. Both excellent performers at opposite ends of NASA's 'look outward' mission.
