My kitty, Keelor, is still going strong at 17 (knock on wood). He came from a litter of four, one of whom died when he was only a few months old. His sister was euthanized just last year at 16, but his other brother died at a relatively young age (around 10, if I remember correctly) from necrotizing pancreatitis.
X-band radio waves used by the rover to communicate. The rover communicates with the orbiters and the DSN through radio waves. They communicate with each other through X-band, which are radio waves at a much higher frequency than radio waves used for FM stations. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech.
âAt that point, the probe drops down on a tether that is as skinny as a shoelace, to keep it a safe distance away when the lander's retrorockets fire.â âScientists studied the rover landing site images to determine the likely reflectance properties of Mars Polar Lander's parachute and the blast zone created on the Martian surface by Mars Polar Lander's retrorockets.â