
NASA's Curiosity Rover Just Spent Its 2,000th Day on Mars - el_duderino
https://www.space.com/40077-curiosity-rover-hits-2000th-day-on-mars.html
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jcasman
This number is in Sols, Martian days. I believe Curiousity landed on Mars on
Aug 6, 2012, which makes it 2056 Earth days.

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amerine
Is it odd that I assumed they meant Sols from the start? The headline seemed
clear to me.

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__s
> Curiosity has driven 11.6 miles (18.7 km) since landing on Mars

Is that distance from landing, or total traversed? ~3km/year seems somewhat
slow, even considering extreme risk aversion. Is it making frequent stops to
collect samples?

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losteric
It's top speed is 0.09 mph... and it frequently stops for samples, technical
issues (computer glitches, wheel performance, etc), or simply to stay alive
(solar panels supplement the RTG; in the winter it must remain on terrain
pointing north)

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walrus01
I am unaware of it having any solar panels, and took a good look at the high-
res photos while it was being assembled at JPL... It's RTG and battery only.

perhaps you're thinking of spirit and/or opportunity?

[https://www.google.com/search?client=ubuntu&channel=fs&q=cur...](https://www.google.com/search?client=ubuntu&channel=fs&q=curiosity+rover+solar+panels&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8)

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losteric
whoops, you're right! I mixed up my rovers, I was thinking about opportunity

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tarre
Hopefully one day ESA will also use radioisotope thermoelectric generators...
:(
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosetta_(spacecraft)](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosetta_\(spacecraft\))

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ygra
Philae didn't have the mass to spare for an RTG. And Rosetta was just fine
with solar power.

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rishabhjain
[https://www.xkcd.com/695/](https://www.xkcd.com/695/)

Maybe one day he can meet his elder brother there. He's quite lonely.

