“
More strangely, the Spirit had no memory of what it had done for that part of Sol 1800. The rover did not record actions, as it otherwise always does, to the part of its computer memory that retains information even when power is turned off, the so-called nonvolatile memory. “It’s almost as if the rover had a bout of amnesia,” said John Callas, the project manager for the rovers.
Mars Rover Disoriented Somewhat After Glitch
I love the quirk of humanity that can send a robot to a human-hostile foreign planet to explore small details, but can’t help but assign personality to it. Similarly, Tierney’s blog has a nice quote from a New Yorker poem by the late John Updike and a link to other pieces expressing similar affection for the mars rovers. The excerpted bit of poem:
Said Spirit to Opportunity,
“I’m feeling rather frail,
With too much in my memory,
Plus barrels of e-mail.”
