hNASA robots keep going and going and ...

hNASA robots keepgoing and going and ...
LOS ANGELES -- The warranty expired long ago on NASA's twin robots motoring around Mars. In two years, they have traveled a total of seven miles. Not impressed? Try keeping your car running in a climate where the average temperature is 67 below zero and where dust devils can reach 100 mph. These two golf cart-sized vehicles were only expected to last three months. "These rovers are living on borrowed time. We're so past warranty on them," says Steven Squyres of Cornell University, the Mars mission's principal researcher. "You try to push them hard every day because we're living day to day." The rover Spirit landed on Mars on Jan. 3, 2004, and Opportunity followed Jan. 24. Since then, they've set all sorts of records and succeeded in the mission's main assignment: finding geologic evidence that water once flowed on Mars. Part of the reason for their long survival is pure luck. Their lives were extended several times by dust devils that blew away dust that covered their solar panels, restoring their ability to generate electricity.
27th storm in Atlanticis predicted to weaken
MIAMI -- Tropical Storm Zeta, the 27th named storm of a record-breaking hurricane season, drifted westward across the Atlantic on Sunday and forecasters said it might weaken during the day. Zeta had top sustained wind of about 50 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center. Forecasters said it was not expected to become a hurricane or threaten land. At 3:30 p.m. EST, Zeta was centered about 1,115 miles southwest of the Azores, the hurricane center said. The storm developed Friday, about a month after the end of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season. It tied a record for the latest developing storm since record keeping began in 1851. The 2005 season featured 14 hurricanes, including Katrina, which devastated Louisiana and Mississippi in August and became the most costly disaster in U.S. history. The named storms exhausted the list of 21 proper names and meteorologists began using the Greek alphabet to name storms for the first time. Earlier this month, Hurricane Epsilon became only the fifth hurricane to form in December in 154 years of record keeping. Forecasters predict that hurricane seasons will be more active than usual for at least another decade.
Teen returns from Iraq;family is relieved at news
MIAMI -- A 16-year-old who took off to Iraq alone to experience the lives of its people firsthand, arrived back in Florida on Sunday, ending a three-week odyssey much to the relief of his family. Farris Hassan was surrounded by family members as he walked to a car waiting outside Miami International Airport. He waved and smiled at reporters. The teenager had cut school and left the United States on Dec. 11, traveling to Kuwait, where he thought he could take a taxi into Baghdad to witness the Dec. 15 parliamentary elections. The border was closed for the elections, so he went to stay with family friends in Lebanon, before flying to Baghdad on Christmas. He contacted The Associated Press bureau in Baghdad on Tuesday and related his story. Farris' long journey home began Friday, when he was put on a military flight from Baghdad to Kuwait, his father said. He spent a day and a half under the watch of the 101st Airborne, the same division that had picked him up from a Baghdad hotel. A U.S. official accompanied him on the flight from Kuwait to Europe, said his father, Dr. Redha Hassan. Both parents were born in Iraqi but have lived in the United States for more than three decades.
New pastor namedfor Crystal Cathedral
GARDEN GROVE, Calif. -- The Crystal Cathedral didn't have to look far to find its next senior pastor. Robert H. Schuller, head of the famed all-glass church southeast of Los Angeles, told his congregation Sunday that his son, Robert A. Schuller, will succeed him. As founding pastor of the church, the elder Schuller, now 79, is considered one of the most influential religious leaders in the country. He plans to remain chairman of the board of international ministries and stay active in the church. Robert A. Schuller, 51, will be installed as senior pastor on Jan. 22. He and his father will keep appearing together on the church's television show, "Hour of Power," which boasts a worldwide audience of 20 million. "My father and I will continue as pulpit partners on many Sunday mornings for years to come," the younger Schuller said. The Crystal Cathedral is affiliated with the Reformed Church in America and is its largest church, with a congregation of over 10,000.
Associated Press