George W. Bush was still in his first term in the White House and Barack Obama was a member of the Illinois state legislature when the Opportunity rover landed on Mars on January 25, 2004. The spacecraft had an expected minimum lifetime of 90 Martian sols — or Martian days, which, at 24 hours, 39 minutes each, are only a little longer than an Earth day. NASA typically lowballs these estim…
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