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Who would have thought that one of the rovers would still be working 7 years after it first landed?
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/newsroom/pr.../20110901a.html

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And now the rover is 9 years old and has broken a US distance record.
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/newsroom/pr.../20130516a.html

I didn't realize 2 astronauts had driven a vehicle 22 miles during one of the moon landings in the 70's.

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Pretty fascinating stuff how they did all that. It's pretty cool to be able to see actual pics of another planet. I'm actually surprised they have not sent any to the moon though. Guess they figure there's nothing worth exploring there after actually sending a man there.

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Mystery rock appears in front of Mars rover

After a decade of exploring the Martian surface, the scientists overseeing veteran rover Opportunity thought they’d seen it all. That was until a rock mysteriously “appeared” a few feet in front of the six-wheeled rover a few days ago.

News of the errant rock was announced by NASA Mars Exploration Rover lead scientist Steve Squyres of Cornell University at a special NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory “10 years of roving Mars” event at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), Pasadena, Calif., on Thursday night. The science star-studded public event was held in celebration of the decade since twin rovers Spirit and Opportunity landed on the red planet in January 2004.

While chronicling the scientific discoveries made by both rovers over the years, Squyres discussed the recent finding of suspected gypsum near the rim of Endeavour Crater — a region of Meridiani Planum that Opportunity has been studying since 2011 — and the discovery of clays that likely formed in a pH-neutral wet environment in Mars past. While these discoveries have been nothing short of groundbreaking, Squyres shared the Mars rover’s team’s excitement for that one strange rock, exclaiming: “Mars keeps throwing new stuff at us!”

In a comparison of recent photographs captured by the rover’s panoramic camera, or Pancam, only bare bedrock can be seen on sol 3528 of the mission (a sol is a Mars day, which is slightly longer than an Earth day). But on sol 3540, a fist-sized rock had appeared (raw Pancam images can be found in the mission archive). MER scientists promptly nicknamed the object “Pinnacle Island.”

http://www.foxnews.com/science/2014/01/17/...intcmp=features

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