Arlo and Janis by Jimmy Johnson for September 18, 2018

Yes but that was one heck of a delivery service.

It also doesn’t have the same weather conditions or traffic as well as road salt to contend with.

RIP “Spirit”, Opportunity’s sibling. It became stuck in Martian sand and couldn’t extricate itself. Its mission officially ended in 2011.

When will this strip stop rambling and going on in non-sequitors and go see the kids and check on the “Baby Project”

28 miles in 14 years for such a small robot, and electric powered, too, with only solar panels for recharging is still quite an achievement. Especially since it could only be moved a few centimeters at a time because of the time delay in communications between Earth and Mars (4 min. to 24 mins. depending on where the 2 planets were located at the time.) I. E. send an order to the rover, wait an average of 13 min. 48 sec. for it to get there, the rover moves and sends back a new set of pictures of where it is – 13m48s we get the pictures, check the pictures to make sure we’re not about to order it over a drop-off or into a rock, send next order and wait. An exercise in patience of a monumental order of being. Pack a book to work or take up knitting while waiting. :)

Your Toyota might enjoy better build quality too, if you were willing to pay $400 million for it.

(Note: Opportunity was worth every cent and more)

Well, I had a car like that once.

Ignored inconvenient Global Warning fact: A few years ago we were bombarded by dire melting ice cap stories. Indeed, the ice caps on Mars were also melting. There were only two cars on Mars, and they were both electric – we did not do it!

And 28 miles far exceeded expectations. So, yeah.

Cars are much more reliable and require much less servicing than 30 years ago – but when they go wrong now it becomes more expensive to fix, due in some part to the garages just changing things till it works again without understanding what they are fixing. When they go all electric then I think we will see another jump in reliability as there are many less moving parts on electric vehicles.

Arlo, it is called “Planned Obsolescence”. If car makers, or anyone manufacture were to make a product to last forever, the only money the manufacture would make would be a one shot. Also, like dresses, shoes, handbags, drills, smart phones, and even wrenches, the manufacture chances the model to get people to purchase the latest thing. However, it is very surprising how long modern cars do last at speeds exceeding 70 mph, holes in roads, etc. My car, (a 1961 Ford Thunderbird) has been in the family for 57 years and counting, has over 500K miles and still runs like new. Dad gave it to me in 2007, and I had to put new tires on it.

AAA is holding its breath that NASA doesn’t need it for Opportunity.

We had that it was called a Hummer

I have a 51 year old Buick Skylark that still runs fine!

Am I the only one who sees that McDonald’s sign in the far distance?

I used to have a car like that.

28 miles in 14 years? That’s because it keeps driving in circles and refuses to ask directions.

Just like being on the 101 in the afternoon

I’m still using my 2002 Honda Accord & it passes smog tests with no problems.

I’m glad they don’t make cars like Mars missions. There is a less than 50% success rate for Mars missions (15 of 39 per NASA.gov). Opportunity is the odd survivor, like Serial232’s T-Bird.

The roads on Mars are probably better that the ones in Chicago.

I see there’s a McDonald’s on Mars