Topic: =/\= moon robotic competition, midnight solar eclipse, opportunity drives 30km

[stoneyface]

so, 46 competitors went at it with their best science foot forward in the second annual moon robotic competition sponsored by NASA. basically the challenge over 5 days is to make your robot collect the most material on a simulated moon surface. congratulations to laurentian university!
read the article here: http://www.space.com/11872-students-win-nasa-moon-robot-competition.html

last week i reported on the "death" of the mars rover spirit. NASA had given up trying to re-establish contact with it. today, the mars rover "opportunity" has surpassed the 30 km mark in total driven distance! way to go opportunity! she is heading towards the "endeavor crater" which is 22km in diameter. that is one big impact crater! great story. i would like to point out that many times people like to point at NASA's failures, and i am no exception. i have serious issues with some of their practices but in regards to the mars rover project, NASA has a huge huge success. the rovers were originally thought to have a 3 month lifespan. well opportunity is 88 times past that! congratulations to the designers. give them a raise and more grant money read the article here" http://www.universetoday.com/86264/opportunity-surpasses-30-km-driving-and-snaps-skylab-crater-in-3-d/

finally an extremely rare event occurred in the far north. a super rare midnight solar eclipse was visible in the arctic region. amazing.
read here: http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/06/midnight-sun-eclipse/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+wired%2Findex+%28Wired%3A+Index+3+%28Top+Stories+2%29%29&utm_content=Google+Reader
more pics here: http://spaceweather.com/eclipses/gallery_01jun11.htm