Published online 26 October 2006 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news061023-14

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Mars rover unperturbed by potential software disaster.

NASA/JPL/Cornell Sprit's winter panorama of the martian landscape.Click here to see enlarged image.

Mars rover Spirit has quietly survived its own version of the millennium bug during its winter break.

Spirit's software ticked over to sol 1000 (that's 1,000 martian days — each lasting 24 hours, 39 minutes, 35 seconds) without a hitch earlier today.

Scientists scrambled to perform emergency software upgrades earlier this year for Spirit and its sibling Opportunity when it looked as if they would overrun their three-digit day-counter. Opportunity's software will pass the 1,000 mark in 20 sols time.

Both Rovers were built to last 90 sols. No one expected them to live ten times as long, says project scientist Bruce Banerdt at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

Spirit has enjoyed a vista over the rugged martian terrain while waiting for spring. As the days get longer it will soon have enough solar energy to start work.

Right now the Sun is between Mars and Earth, making it difficult for scientists to contact the rovers. To keep the rovers active, they have been set a range of repetitive tasks — storing or transmitting data — until they come back into range.

Not all of Spirit's software has been used through the winter, but despite their age and potential frailty, there are no plans to pension off the rovers just yet. Banerdt's team is still working every day to do as much science as possible.

"I guess it's like when people get older," says Banerdt, "Most elderly people I know aren't worrying every day whether they are going to keel over."

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