Exeter wrote:

wrote in
:


After a string of failures, from the Shuttle Challenger disaster in
1986, and the Columbia disaster more recently, it is very refreshing
to see the unmanned Spirit rover succeed.


Succeed? Getting a bit ahead of yourself aren't you? All it's done so
far is land successfully. While that's a great beginning, the real
mission hasn't even started yet...plenty of time for failure.

Killjoy.

What's behind are the highest risk portions of the mission. Sure, Mars
carries a 66% failure rate. But all of those failures were prior to
landing. So far, everything that's made contact after landing has done
an exemplary job and exceeded expectations. (as long as you don't expect
to see life waving to you)

Besides, by the time I've written this response, I've seen the
back-looking camera shot of the reentry vehicle that Spirit just drove
off of - the next high-risk task. Now we just have to avoid tumbles and
the like, and it should be clear sailing.

Dale Pontius