As NASA's Spirit rover marks its 2,000th workday on Mars, team members back on Earth are conducting the final dress rehearsal for a long-range operation they hope will free the plucky robot from its Red Planet sand trap.
The rover team keeps track of Spirit's timeline in Martian days, or "sols," which are slightly longer than Earth days. The result is that even though the rover passed the 2,000-day milestone a few weeks ago, as measured on Earth, the Sol 2000 mark didn't come around until Tuesday.
Let's hear it for NASA. Our boys still have it. Not bad for a mission originally planned for 60 to 90 days. |