summer 2003: rover robots go to mars. original mission length, maybe 90 days?
summer 2008: still running. go robots go! see the dramatic flyover.
hey, look, the robots were indirectly named by jeff sachs!
Twin robotic geologists NASA is sending to Mars will embody in their newly chosen names — Spirit and Opportunity — two cherished attributes that guide humans to explore.
NASA Administrator Sean O’Keefe and 9-year-old Sofi Collis, who wrote the winning essay in a naming contest, unveiled the names this morning at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. “Now, thanks to Sofi Collis, our third grade explorer-to-be from Scottsdale, Ariz., we have names for the rovers that are extremely worthy of the bold mission they are about to undertake,” O’Keefe said.
Sofi read her essay: “I used to live in an orphanage. It was dark and cold and lonely. At night, I looked up at the sparkly sky and felt better. I dreamed I could fly there. In America, I can make all my dreams come true. Thank you for the ‘Spirit’ and the ‘Opportunity.’”
Hers was selected from nearly 10,000 entries in the contest sponsored by NASA and the Lego Co., a Denmark-based toymaker, with collaboration from the Planetary Society, Pasadena, Calif.
Collis was born in Siberia. At age two, she was adopted by Laurie Collis and brought to the United States. “She has in her heritage and upbringing the soul of two great spacefaring countries,” O’Keefe said. “One of NASA’s goals is to inspire the next generation of explorers. Sofi is a wonderful example of how that next generation also inspires us.”
oh a wretched waif in russia in 1996! how’d that happen.
maybe the robots are looking for good places to build call centers.
0 Responses to “best robots ever!”