scazon

Oppy lasted more than 50 times its design life. Spirit lasted many times its design life as well. Why were the estimated design lives so short, and why did mission planners not count on more time initially? What does the massive success and longevity of this program mean for future Mars/space technology?

I thought that nuclear reaction power was something we'd basically stopped doing because of, among other things, range safety implications during launches. Given the recent history of rocket launch failures, is this still on everyone's radar (so to speak)?