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Mars exploration continues well beyond mission date

I’ve been catching up on the exploits of Spirit and Opportunity.  The rovers sent over in 2004 to explore Mars.    They are still going strong after 5 years although their mission life was to be three months.  It seems they have planned the next stage in the extended exploration.

Spirit has had a problem with a wheel for a while now but it seems that the team running them have been able to work around the problem and Opportunity seems to be hitting a similar problem.  If the work they are doing doesn’t fix it then I hope they can work around it as before.

All this additional data they are gathering must be opening our eyes to the mysteries of Mars.   It seems to me that these must be the most cost effective robots we have deployed.   Five years and counting.  Fingers crossed for many more.

At least if I was looking for a team to build my probes I know where to go.  These guys must be proud.