Eight Years. Options

[Guest_Oersted_*]

I remember waking up very early on a Sunday morning in Denmark, scurrying down to the baker for breakfast buns and then camping in front of my computer and watching the live web feed in the dark, before sun-up. So happy to have followed the rovers all these years, they have been a huge presence in my life!

[eoincampbell]

Happy Anniversary MERs and team, my annual viewing of Roving Mars is complete, thanks for the joy and wonder...

[stewjack]

The Spirit and Oppy Show as Entertainment

Apparently, I have been watching the Spirit and Oppy show for eight years. I watched it nearly every day, but I will be conservative and say 5 days a week. I am certain that I average over 20 minutes a day on the topic, or following links and reading other related material - but once again I will be conservative. That is 100 minutes a week! There may have been a 90 minute TV series that ran for eight years, but I wonder if anybody watched every episode.

I don't even want to talk about the time I waste on the UMSF network. Luckily I am retired and no longer have a TV.

Jack

[ElkGroveDan]

The Spirit and Oppy Show as Entertainment
There may have been a 90 minute TV series that ran for eight years, but I wonder if anybody watched every episode.

There haven't been many 90 minute shows, but in comparison to one-hour shows or thirty-minute programs (which is probably the amount of time the average MER junky spends here) the MER Show has already beaten out I Love Lucy which ran for six years (1951-1957) and Leave It To Beaver, also six seasons (1957-1963) and just passed Dynasty which ran for eight seasons (1981-1989).

The MER Show has one more year to go before beating out The Waltons (1972-1981), two more years to go before it will pass up Baywatch (1989-2001), and four more years to equal Hawaii Five-O (1968-80). I'll try to keep everyone posted as we approach these important milestones in the longevity category.

[Stu]

Oh the banners crying out to be made there...

Dr Who celebrates its 50th anniversary this year*.

Just sayin'.




* (Okay, it wasn't on every year of those 50, there was a 'break' for a while, but hey, come on, have to fight our corner... )

[stevesliva]

It's also exceeded the duration of the Galileo Mission.

[ilbasso]

My granddaughter was born in the evening of January 3, 2008, 4 years nearly to the hour after Spirit landed. She celebrated her 4th birthday yesterday. She shares my interest in space exploration and the planets. It's interesting at this particular moment to see her birth as sort of an "inflection point' in the journey of the MERs on Mars!

Congratulations to the MER team and to interplanetary explorers everywhere!

But most of all, happy birthday, my sweet little Molly!

[jasedm]

Oh the banners crying out to be made there...

Dr Who celebrates its 50th anniversary this year*.

Just sayin'.




* (Okay, it wasn't on every year of those 50, there was a 'break' for a while, but hey, come on, have to fight our corner... )

Patrick Moore will have presented 'The sky at night' every month for 55 years come April this year - the world's longest-running TV show with the same presenter - quite an achievement (I think he's missed only one show in that time) It'd be nice to think Opportunity was still going strong in 2059.....

BTW Stu didn't Doctor Who launch in '63??

[brellis]

Sofi Collis, the nine-year old girl who won the NASA contest to name the rovers, is now 17 years old. I wonder if she'll work on the Opportunity crew some day?

[Stu]

BTW Stu didn't Doctor Who launch in '63??

Ah. You're right, I'm a year early, sorry. Looking forward to celebrating that anniversary *and* Oppy's ninth year on Mars next year, then.

Good point about THE SKY AT NIGHT. The longevity of that series was brought up recently when a certain "misbehaving astronomer" suggested Neil deGrasse Tyson was the most well-known astronomer on the planet.

[Tesheiner]

Just finished reading "Roving Mars". Had to after every sentence / paragraph related to the rover's longevity or "long term" goals.
E i g h t years ... and counting.

[Fran Ontanaya]

I can't believe how much has Mars changed in these eight years. From the timid look around of the Vikings and Pathfinder, to the vast expanses that are now more familiar than most places on Earth. Imagine how the Solar System will look like when every major body has had their equivalent "MER decade" of ground discoveries.

[Pertinax]

Just finished reading "Roving Mars". Had to after every sentence / paragraph related to the rover's longevity or "long term" goals.

I had pretty much the same experience myself this past August as I my wife and I read Roving Mars together.


-- Pertinax

[MERovingian]

This birthday means that I am addicted to Mars since eight years; indeed, since the 4th of January 2004, I must have my daily dose of Martian pics.

Back then, I had prepared a file for the first 90 sols; being optimistic, I named it "Sol 1 to 100". Today, for Oppy, it's the 28th one-hundred-sols-file on my computer!! I can't imagine my life without Oppy's pics: I need my fix!!! I hope the girl will provide for a very loooooong time!

Oppy landed on my 39th birthday; it was the best gift I ever had! Many many many thanks to JPL and Nasa for this!

[brellis]

The nice thing about your 39th birthday (according to my dad) is that you get to be 39 for as long as you want. Oppy's age is only a number: