Opportunity

There’s a nice little AP article marking the nine years since Opportunity landed on Mars. In the years since, the rover has traversed 22 miles. Coincidentally, the astronauts of Apollo 17 also drove their rover 22 miles during their three days on the lunar surface forty years ago. Fender repairs using map pages, duct tape, and (very importantly) gloved hands were part of those three days. Remote probes’ computers are reprogrammed frequently to compensate for degrading systems, but it’s not quite the same thing.