Reminds me of the line from the "Hitch-Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy" radio programme where the cost of getting the guide was "... four pounds ninety-five pence for the book, and two hundred million MILLION pounds postage and packaging."

I think one of the rovers was stuck at one time, but it managed to free itself.

"Spirit" is currently dormant, possibly due to a low power fault and may be trying to recharge its batteries. "Opportunity", on the other hand, is still in contact with NASA and is still conducting experiments on the Martian surface:

http://marsrover.nasa.gov/mission/status.html

Thanks for the Link Tim. I've been searching the NASA news pages for any word on the fate of the dormant rover.

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.html

The official NASA site for Spirit and Opportunity. Spirit is stuck and may not 'phone home' again due to power and temperature problems. Spirit is stuck in what might be called powder sand. Every attempt to extract it has failed.

One must remember though that these machines had a ninety day warranty. Spirit is on day 2835 (6.28 years, or 2295 days past warranty) while Opportunity is on day 2365 (6.48 years, or 2275 days past warranty.) There are darn few modern day devices that survive 26.5 times their warranty period. A car is warranted, at best five years. This would be like the average mass produced bread box still running (with minor rattles) 132.5 yeas later with no maintenance at all, just adding gasoline or recharging the batteries. It's not going to happen.

Shudder, is that computer your reading this on going to be running in twenty years? Not the hard drive!

For the record, and in my own personal opinion. Spirit and Opportunity are stupid names to give these rovers. It shows a distinct lack of imagination on NASA's part, and is a good example as to why they have lost the average Americans interest.

Me? I'd have called them something interesting. Maybe Xena and Gabriella. Or Mutt and Jeff. Maybe even name them Sherlock and Watson. Spirit? Opportunity? Where is the majik in those names?

They were meant to re-spark interest in the space program without "contamination" from pop culture. In that, I believe they were modestly successful.

'Pop Culture' is how you snare the masses. 'Classical Culture' is how you snag... Who do you snag with such names? No one I know was ever fired up by them. Maybe Zombies?

I wouldn't even call it 'classical' culture:

'Spirit' and 'Opportunity'? Sounds as if they simply lifted them out of the nearest list of Congressional buzzwords...... 7X=Q

How abowt ifth they borrowered them from names ofth thir Credit Cardths?

It must really suck to spend a few billion dollars on one of these things, wait the years it takes for the damn thing to reach Mars, and then have it get stuck or malfunction once its there. Its not like you can send a repair crew

Must suck to know that your under educated.

Must suck to know that you failed at basic grammar.

Hah! There's yankee ingenuity for you. :)

You're aware of course, that Grumman, maker of the Apollo lunar module, presented North American Aviation, maker of the Apollo command module, with a hefty towing bill for the Apollo 13 mission, right? Seriously, they did (all in good fun of course). NAA responded that with all the towing the command/service module did on Apollos 10, 11, and 12, it all evened out in the end. :)

reminds me of the xkcd strip here.
http://xkcd.com/695/

It's kind of "Spooky," but most the techs who work on the Martian rovers say the two machines have definite "Personalities." The cartoon has an "Ironic" sense to it, as from the start it was planned the Rivers would never be able to return to Earth on their own. I DO like the idea that perhaps the machines cling to the link that connects them to the world on the other end of the circuit. It's be like if all of a sudden, I was disconnected from the internet...

well allot of people would act like that too. me among them despite the knowledge i know about the internet that shows how fragile it is.

LOL!