Mystery power boost for Mars rover


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LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- As NASA's Mars rovers keep rolling past all expectations of their useful lives, scientists have a happy mystery: For some reason one of the vehicles has actually gained power recently.

Opportunity recently experienced an unexplained rejuvenation from what can so far be described only as two or three significant "cleaning events," said Jim Erickson, the rover project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.

"Now we're assuming they're cleaning, but all we can really say is that overnight the solar panels produced between 2 and 5 percent additional power immediately," he said. "We're surmising that for some reason dust is being removed from the solar panel and that's increasing the efficiency of the sunlight being converted to electricity."

The rover team has been bandying about theories, but hasn't figured out the cause.

"One favorite is that a dust devil happened to pick the vehicle to go through and go over the surface of it and clean it off a little bit," Erickson said.

source:

http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/space/11/05/m...r.ap/index.html

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any one ever had sex with a friendly alien? oh wait..... forget I asked... I probably don't wanna know...  :alien:  :hump:

584871394[/snapback]

Sure, one time there was this Mexican girl who came across the border.....Oh wait, not that type of alien?

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  • 2 weeks later...
Sure, one time there was this Mexican girl who came across the border.....Oh wait, not that type of alien?

584874975[/snapback]

:laugh:

came across the border huh?

:shifty:

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came across the border huh?

584919613[/snapback]

And the award for most disturbing avatar goes to......

qkslvr221 *applause*

Wow that makes two awards for you, this and biggest hater of vowels, congrats.

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  • 3 weeks later...
People say aliens want to take over earth?! Well looks like they are helping us. So all you conspiracy pirates can shut up! Beacuse aliens are nice!

584871339[/snapback]

probably more species of aliens than one. some may be nice, some may be hostile, some may look human, some may look like something we'd never expect. who knows.

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  • 4 weeks later...
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