That is an incredible reflection on the designers and engineers who built and programmed this machine (as it happens, one of them lives here in Hobart).<div><br></div><div>To put it in perspective, ever had a mechanic try to fix an intermittent problem in a 10 year old car? Now think of the car as being a one-off, with no dealer network or spare parts supply chain. Oh, and it's so far away that even a message takes 15 minutes or so to get there. And you can't directly touch it. Like trying to change a flat tyre using chopsticks only worse.</div><div><br></div><div>Oh, and it was only designed to last a few months...</div><div><br></div><div>A remarkable piece of technology.</div><div><br></div><div>kp<br><br>On Monday, January 26, 2015, Roland Gesthuizen <<a href="mailto:rgesthuizen@gmail.com">rgesthuizen@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div dir="auto"><div><span style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)">The Mars rover Opportunity surprised everyone by exploring for more than a decade after its mission ended. sadly it is showing signs of slowing down with failing flash memory. Fascinating IT problem with a remote NASA hack to upgrade and reboot. - Roland</span></div><div><br></div><div><a href="http://gizmodo.com/amnesiac-mars-rover-is-getting-brain-surgery-from-milli-1677090895" target="_blank">http://gizmodo.com/amnesiac-mars-rover-is-getting-brain-surgery-from-milli-167709089</a></div><div><div style="font-size:19px;line-height:29px">
<p>As <a href="http://mwhite66.kinja.com/" target="_blank">mwhite66</a> pointed out ...</p>
<p><span><img src="http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--IZaxkgCE--/zybhabiyluy0orjlu3x8.png" width="636" height="858" alt="Amnesiac Mars Rover Is Getting Brain Surgery From Millions of Miles Away"></span></p></div></div></div>
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</blockquote></div><br><br>-- <br>-- <br>Dr Ken Price MACS CP ACCE Professional Associate.<br>President, TASITE <a href="http://www.tasite.tas.edu.au" target="_blank">http://www.tasite.tas.edu.au</a><br>