10,000 meters Options

[Mark Adler]

Opportunity just clicked over a bunch of zeros on the odometer this afternoon. The current reading is 10,023.19 m.

[dvandorn]

No, neither MER is close to any one of the LRVs in terms of total mileage. But the two MERs combined are approaching half to two-thirds of what one LRV drove, on average.

I'm thinking in terms of the LRVs driving an average of about 25 km per mission. The longest distance traveled by an LRV was on Apollo 17, I know, and I think LRV-2 on Apollo 16 traveled the shortest distance (by a small bit). I seem to recall that Apollo 17's LRV-3 traveled about 32 km, so I believe the average per LRV should be in the 25 km range.

And the total MER mileage is, what, about 16 km at this point? If they stay active and Oppy keeps adding kilometers running circles around Victoria, the total of both MERs may equal or exceed the average single LRV driving distance.

Of course, the total time spent driving LRVs on the Moon was probably eight to ten hours over the three J missions, while it has taken three years for the MERs to get as far as they have. But that's just the nature of the beast. I'm still in awe of what the MERs can do.

-the other Doug

[climber]

And the total MER mileage is, what, about 16 km at this point? If they stay active and Oppy keeps adding kilometers running circles around Victoria, the total of both MERs may equal or exceed the average single LRV driving distance.
-the other Doug

I checked my notes back (source : http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov) and found that on march17th 2006 Spirit was for the last time ahead of Oppy (6797m/6735m). On March 22nd we had 6822/6908.
The leading started around sol 766, 314 sols ago and 3100m have been covered since... very close to 10m per sol or, put in Mark Adler's way 900m per primary mission. Our dear Oppy is a very consistent little old lady. I'm not sure to be in such a good shape when I'll be 900 years old.