May 26, 2004

» And I thought I was weird. But I guess they have a much better excuse (via)

"There are very definitely strong emotional ties to the rovers," said Steve Squyres of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, and principal investigator for the science payload carried on each of the rovers.

"We poured our hearts and souls into these things for years, so how wouldn't there be? In fact, for me personally, it was actually a little hard just to say goodbye to them at launch. It's going to be very hard to say goodbye to them forever," Squyres told SPACE.com.

As to how Squyres and his colleagues will deal with the eventual loss of the Mars machinery, he responded: "I don't know... ask me that when we get to that point. The sadness from losing the vehicles will be balanced, in part, by a big plus. We'll get our lives back! Flight operations have been exhausting, involving a lot of time away from our families. So, in that regard, life will certainly get easier after they're gone."