October 29th, 2006
Rovers on Mars
Posted by
chrislintott in
Mars
I’m really looking forward to starting work on our special Sky at Night on Mars, due for broadcast as the 650th program in January. We’ve had this in the diary for years, but kept waiting for the rovers Spirit and Opportunity to die. We’re still - thankfully - waiting, and we eventually blinked first. One of the most memorable parts of interviewing the rover’s principle investigator, Steve Squyers, was hearing him describe just how overwhelmed the team felt by a mission that had lasted eight times its scheduled lifetime and that was a year ago!
All of which serves as a prelude to this fantastic spoof by The Onion (which contains occasional swearing).
on October 30th, 2006 at 5:28 pm
Hi Chris,
It’s truly amazing how long the rovers have lasted. I look forward to seeing the broadcast as i am a keen reader of the S@N magazine and i really enjoy the t.v programme too. Thanks again,
Samuel Hawkins
on October 30th, 2006 at 10:22 pm
Hi Chris,
It’s a good job artificial intellegence isn’t quite this far advanced! I think you should keep this spoof away from the conspiracy theorists, they’ll think it’s a real progress report!
Looking forward to the 650th show, I haven’t missed a show in 30 years! Why do I suddenly feel so old now! Sir Patrick has always been my inspiration and the show just goes from strength to strength. Long may it continue! The combination of Sir Patrick in the studio (okay I know it’s his home!) and your “roving reports” keep us all up to date and well informed!
All the best.
John.
on October 30th, 2006 at 11:18 pm
Hi Chris,
Can’t wait for the Mars special! The rovers must surely by now rank as the most succesful unmanned planetary mission ever. They deserve all the praise and tributes they can get, and with the prospect of a manned Mars mission in our lifetime rapidly fading these plucky little rovers will be our finest ambassadors to the red planet for many generations. I’m sure you’ll do a great job covering their successes on the show.
Spirit and Opportunity ” (or “Oppy” as we rover nuts like to call her!) have inspired people all around the world to create images and pictures of their own by taking the rovers’ raw images and, by adding colour and merging them into panoramas, creating amazing new and original images. I can’t do that myself, but they have moved me to write poetry about them. If anyone’s interested, they can find the poems - and poems about other astronomy-themed subjects - here:
http://journals.aol.com/stuartatk/TheVerse
All the best from a rain-lashed Kendal…
Stu