The rover Spirit has been in the news often recently because of its effort to make it to a safe spot for Mars winter. Spirit has been running strong for nearly 4 years and is showing signs of aging. Spirit is now carried a useless wheel and its power supply is extremely low. This is because the solar panels are so caked with dust that they are only 45% effective. Also its rock grinding teeth are worn down to nubs. Its also amazing to think that this rover have only covered a handful of miles <10 but have made so many useful discoverys. Spirit and its brother Opportunity have also captured nearly 100,000 phots. To put into perspective the age of Spirit: If these rovers were cars they'd have an equivalent of 800,000 miles. Some interesting facts for people who didn't know are the vitals of these rovers. The rovers are about 5 feet long, 5 feet high, and 7 feet wide and weigh 384 pounds. These facts are very interesting and the fight for life will continue for these rovers.
FOr more info see http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/nation/12/09/1209marsrover.html
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