A good deal for NASA

I was reading over on Sams Spot about all her machines breaking down. Here's one (two) that haven't. The Mars Rovers. This is the first couple a paragraphs from an Astronomy.com article. Read the rest here.

Mars rovers near five years of science and discovery

The rovers have made important discoveries about wet and violent environments on ancient Mars. They also have returned a quarter-million images.

This mosaic of frames from the navigation camera on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity gives a view to the northeast from the rover's position on its 1,687th martian day, or sol (October 22, 2008).

By that date, Opportunity had driven southwestward from Victoria Crater, beginning a long trek toward a larger crater, Endeavour. NASA/JPL-Caltech [View Larger Image]

December 29, 2008
NASA rovers Spirit and Opportunity may still have big achievements ahead as they approach the fifth anniversaries of their memorable landings on Mars.

No one predicted the team would still be operating both rovers in 2009 when Spirit landed on January 3, 2004, and 21 days later when Opportunity followed suit.

"The American taxpayer was told three months for each rover was the prime mission plan," said Ed Weiler, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate at NASA headquarters in Washington. "The twins have worked almost 20 times that long. That's an extraordinary return on investment in these challenging budgetary times."

Tonight is the Astronomical Society Meeting, and it's raining this morning, Hope it clears up!