I know a lot of people now know about the Mars rovers that have lived for more than 15 times their manufacturer's warranty. They were designed to last 3 months and have lived for more that 45 months. This is a testament to NASA. A lot of people believe that Americans have to outsource their manufacturing jobs because we can't build anything that can last a long time. And yet here are two examples of equipment that can.
An image representing the Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity. Image credit, NASA and JPL.
It just goes to show you, it's not about throwing money at a problem, because at NASA it's about team work. It's about pride and it's about NASA's spirit. NASA has the best people working for it. They make sure that every piece of equipment on the rovers and any actual flight equipment are tested. Then they retest it and test it again to make sure that nothing breaks on the long trip anywhere in the solar system and beyond.
See when a mission such as the rovers is such a success, Congress and the President make sure NASA is well funded. When things go wrong, such as the Mars Climate Explorer back in 1999, it puts a black eye on NASA. In the case of the Mars Climate Explorer it was a really back eye when it turned out that the reason the mission failed was because one team of scientist used metric units, for measuring a key part of the mission, where the other group of scientists used English units.
What happens is that the public starts to wonder why we have a space agency that can't even get a probe to a planet. You get the press taking polls and it soon becomes apparent that the public is annoyed at NASA. Soon Congress wants to hold a congressional meeting to find out what went wrong, remember they supplied the money for the spacecraft, which is now either burned up in Mars's atmosphere or on a course out of the solar system. Then with congressional pressure the unlucky President is left to either fire a few administrators at NASA or have his administrator fire some people. Oh, and did I mention that NASA budget then could get cut. So it's all good news and a lot of pressure to make sure each mission is a success.
This brings me back to the Mars Exploration Rovers. They are amazing machines. They have lasted well past their warranty and have proved that NASA has the right stuff. They continue to send back data about the red planet and will go down in history as the first robotic mission to discover that Mars had water around a lot of the planet. Enough water that life could have formed and enough that maybe one day we humans co go back there and terra form Mars so that life can one day take hold again. Mars's future is not bleak, nor is human kinds. We just got to treat each other with a lot of respect and team work which is like they do at NASA. And never forget, risk, is part of their business.
