[MSNwar]

Scientists received new images of Mars taken by Opportunity early Sunday, just hours after the rover became the second of NASA's twin rovers to successfully land on the barren surface of the red planet.



Staffers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory burst into cheers as Opportunity's first images of a new part of Mars appeared on their monitors.

"Holy smokes," NASA scientist Steve Squier said as a cascade of detailed photos appeared on computer screens around mission control.

"I will attempt no science analysis because it's like nothing I've seen in my life," Squier said. Images showed a flat surface with what appeared to be light-colored outcroppings near the rover.

Opportunity touched down at 12:05 a.m. ET (0505 GMT), three weeks after Spirit landed on the other side of the planet.

"We're on Mars everybody," mission scientist Wayne Lee declared as fellow members monitoring the landing at mission control burst into wild applause .

Because of recent technical problems with Spirit, Opportunity's controllers experienced a few nervous moments as they counted down and checked off descent maneuvers during -- what appeared to be -- a flawless six-minute sequence.

As planned, the airbag-encased craft bounced on the martian surface and rolled gently for a few minutes before coming to a complete stop.

Hours later, NASA received some 30 megabytes of information from Opportunity, including the pictures and a full systems check that indicated all was functioning normally.

Rest of the story

Source: CNN.com

[XtremeMaC]

is it true that it uses Nvidia graphics chip?
if so the government is still with Nvidia rather than ati

[prathapml]

Yeah......
so what ?????

I'd rather go for a product and company that I know will be around 10 years from now. And nV had a good reputation all along until the fiasco some months back (which is still going on).

[XtremeMaC]

aaaaaa hmmm, NOTHING just wondering if its true?
I've been using Nvidia, I've no intention of changing to ati at ALL.

most "nvidia fan boys" changed their minds after 2 slotted jet engined sound cooler.

whatever.......................................