Are we there yet? Mars rover nears crater...

[cjolley]

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/06/10/are-we-there-yet-mars-rover-nears-crater/?hpt=hp_t2

NASA's rover on Mars, Opportunity, is closing in on Endeavour crater. It has taken the rover nearly three years to travel 11 miles across the Martian terrain.
And you thought your grandpa drove slow.
Opportunity will enter the crater at a spot named Spirit Point in honor of the rover's late partner. Spirit fell silent in March 2010, and its mission was terminated after one final attempt to communicate with it last month.
Both rovers completed their prime, three-month missions on Mars in April 2004, NASA said, but kept going (and going and going) with years of bonus work.
"Spirit achieved far more than we ever could have hoped when we designed her," said Steve Squyres of Cornell University, principal investigator for the rovers. "This name (Spirit Point) will be a reminder that we need to keep pushing as hard as we can to make new discoveries with Opportunity."
The crater is still 2 miles distant, so Opportunity better keep an eye out for rest areas.

[Dr Mordrid]

These rovers, Hubble, and the Voyagers were money much more than well spent. More knowledge/buck than is measurable now because it'll take decades to fully analyze it all. Hell, the Voyagers are still sending back very valuable data from the heliopause.

[cjolley]

No kidding.
And the depressing part is that it's hard to convince bean counters that you have to swing at a lot of pitches to hit a few home runs.

[Jessterw]

I do hope the 'privatization' of space exploration helps move things forward and inspires future generations the way it once did.

[Dr Mordrid]

The reduction in launch costs/kilogram alone from commercial will help space science, and allow for larger missions. Of course SpaceX is leading this charge.

The Mars rovers had to be launched on two Delta II Heavy launchers. A single Falcon 9 could have launched them both at less than half the price, and it's getting major engine upfrades.

The Delta IV Heavy costs $300M - $400M each and can launch 23 mT to LEO. For $120M a Falcon Heavy with cross-fed propellants can launch 53 mT to the same location. When their Raptor 2nd stage (H2/LOx) is ready you can up that to 65+ mT, depending on how large the tanks are.

One mission NASA and everyone else has been wanting to do is a Mars sample return. Delta IV Heavy can't do it, and it's the biggest dog in the pen. OTOH Falcon Heavy could do it easily. It could also launch a probe to Ceres capable of melting through the ice and inserting a minisub into a subsurface ocean if Dawn finds one in 2015.

[Umfriend]

Wasn't the trip interrupted by Martian winter as well?

[Dr Mordrid]

Yup - they take a nap.