October 26, 2006

Mars rover beginning to hate Mars.

Posted by apostropher

Unmanned vehicle bored out of its mind:

"Spirit has been displaying some anomalous behavior," said Project Manager John Callas, who noted the rover's unsuccessful attempts to flip itself over and otherwise damage its scientific instruments. "And the thousand or so daily messages of 'STILL NO WATER' really point to a crisis of purpose." [...]

But as the winter lingered, Spirit began producing thousands of pages of sometimes rambling and dubious data, ranging from complaints that the Martian surface was made up almost entirely of the same basalt, to long-winded rants questioning the exorbitant cost and scientific relevance of the mission.

"Granted, Spirit has been extraordinarily useful to our work," Callas said. "Last week, however, we received three straight days of images of the same rock with the message 'HAPPY NOW?'"


Comments
1

See, this is why a manned mission to Mars is so important. People, unlike computers, do not get bored by repetitive tasks and are not weirded out by the knowledge that they are millions of miles away from the nearest living soul.

Posted by: My Alter Ego at October 26, 2006 11:46 AM
2

I'm sorry, I can't do that Dave.

Posted by: Dave McLeod at October 27, 2006 01:10 AM
3

what?!?

Posted by: darling at October 27, 2006 05:54 PM
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