Why aren Mars landers designed to last longer?
The lifetime of a standard interplanetary landing expedition is timed precisely on the geophysical schedule — most recently ascertained by a RAND Corporation study — whereby a graduate student with the successful mission on his resume can land a permanent job. Well, really, what do you think — that they design in planned three-month obsolescence deliberately, as in making a conscious choice to spend millions of dollars and years of their scientific or engineering career pursing an objective that they would rather, after all, just use up in less time than a run of Survivor? In truth, they do everything they can to prolong the mission, within funding, technological, and other constraints. Don’t forget that, with the exception of Pathfinder/Sojourner (a $150M experiment), it’s been 27 years since anyone landed a big rover on Mars … or any other planet. Three months lifetime, considering how these things often turn out, is fa
