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January 28, 2004
Exploring Mars By Committee
I have my own theory as to why NASA is having so many problems with its two Mars rovers. Since landing on the Martian surface, the rover Spirit has gone into a cycle of crashing and rebooting. It's like somebody put Windows 95 on it or something. It's twin, Opportunity, which has yet to leave its landing pad, has developed some sort of problem that causes an on-board heater to run all the time.
While I'm not a rocket scientist (although I know a few), my theory is that the Mars rovers are just bored by the glacial pace at which the mission is proceeding. The whole thing is really quite ridiculous. Every day, JPL issues press releases along the lines of:
"Today, the rover completed a 5 degree, counter-clockwise turn. It was a complicated and carefully planned maneuver involving our entire team of scientists and engineers. We will now spend two days analyzing all of the data returned by the rover following the rotational movement. If all goes well, next week we plan to beam instructions to the rover to initiate a 25 centimeter forward movement."
Come on, people! I suppose this Mars mission is working better than previous attempts, and it's probably cheaper, but faster? I think not. What the eggheads at JPL need to do is step aside and hand the joystick over to some kid who spends 5 hours a day playing Twisted Metal: Black. They'll have half the surface explored between dinner and bed time.
Posted by Dan at January 28, 2004 02:35 PM
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