NASA Left Red Faced As Rovers Accidentally Draw A Penis On Mars
The Mars Rovers, obviously bored out of their robotic minds traversing the red planet, are now whiling away the time like immature students everywhere: by drawing dirty pictures.
A keen-eyed person spotted a photo of Rover tracks on NASA’s site that looks remarkably like a penis. The pic was posted to Reddit with the caption “Mars Rover = $800M, Team to Operate = $1B. Drawing a penis on the surface of another planet = Priceless.”
As the Huffington Post reports, the twin exploration vehicles Spirit and Opportunity were launched nine years ago, in an effort to search the surface of Mars for signs of water erosion and possibly even life.
According to Nasa, since then the rovers have driven over more than 10km of Martian land, directed by teams back on Earth combined with autonomous cameras designed to avoid potential problems with the terrain.
It’s not clear which of the rovers drew the shape, or even when it was made. It’s been suggested the rude drawing came as a result of the Rover turning in tight circles to find a new route.
Nasa lost communication with the Spirit rover in 2009 after it became stuck in some sand. Meanwhile the Opportunity is still traversing the surface on its way to the Endeavour crater.
Last year they were joined on the Red Planet by Nasa’s $1.5billion rover Curiosity, which has so far not stooped to the immature levels of its rover cousins.
[Huffington Post]
