NASA: Mars Rovers Will Continue to Run

March 25th, 2008

In this image provided by NASA, a robotic arm from NASA's Mars Exploration rover Spirit is shown on the 1,277th Martian day in this Aug. 6, 2007, file photo. Scientists plan to put Spirit to sleep and limit the activities of its sister rover Opportunity to fulfill a NASA order to cut $4 million from the program's budget, mission team members said Monday, March 24, 2008. (AP Photo/NASA)

(AP) -- NASA says it has absolutely no plan to turn off either of the Mars Rovers because of budget cuts.

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• DGBEACH - Mar 25, 2008
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  Great news!
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• earls - Mar 25, 2008
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  A whole bunch of hoopla for nothing.
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• CMolt - Mar 25, 2008
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  Whata crock...
  This is the best money we've spent on mars and they want to shut it down (?)...DUH and double DUH!
  We finally got a bulls-eye.... even if they just do a walk-about looking at "this and that" that's just plain incredible!
  Damn things weren't supposed to work for more than 90 days... HA HA... the little beasties just keep truckin' ... Pink bunnies.
  
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• sjm - Mar 25, 2008
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  It is amazing that anybody at NASA would consider ending or cutailing this experiment. The marginal cost of continuing to receive data from the rovers is incredibly small given the initial investment, the scientific information gained and yet to be gained.
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• quantum_flux - Mar 25, 2008
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  Yes, this even better than a certain hacker rigging up a satellite dish and taking over Spirit!
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• gopher65 - Mar 25, 2008
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  I love how that worked. Just like the Hubble Servicing Mission the DAWN mission;). Just goes to show that if there is a big enough public backlash over these things they'll change their minds.
  
  Now if only VentureStar or JIMO would have had their unfortunate cancellations reversed:(. I'm still bitter over those. And quite a few others actually. The TPF especially.
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