Beltane Early Growth Moon
Got outside yesterday during the sunny hours and put a pollen patty on for the bees, laid 
down some weed preventer and left Kona outside. She stuck around the house, though, wondering when she could get back in, but not, I imagine, very unhappy with being left on her own.
Kate and I watched a Disney special on the Opportunity and Spirit rovers sent to Mars in 2004. This film was made in 2006, so I went to the NASA websites to check up on them. Spirit stopped phoning home in 2010 and NASA stopped revival efforts in 2011. Even so, that means Spirit went exploring for 6 years, 5 years and 9 months past its mission plan. Even more remarkable, Opportunity continues to motor along,
In fact, just yesterday it relayed data:
Mars Rover Opportunity Examines Clay Clues in Rock
Rock Target ‘Esperance’ Altered by Wet History (False Color)
The pale rock in the upper center of this image, about the size of a human forearm, includes a target called “Esperance,” which was inspected by NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity.
PASADENA, Calif. — NASA’s senior Mars rover, Opportunity, is driving to a new study area after a dramatic finish to 20 months on “Cape York” with examination of a rock intensely altered by water.
The fractured rock, called “Esperance,” provides evidence about a wet ancient environment possibly favorable for life. The mission’s principal investigator, Steve Squyres of Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., said, “Esperance was so important, we committed several weeks to getting this one measurement of it, even though we knew the clock was ticking.”
Opportunity on May 16th also broke the existing NASA record for distance traveled on 
either the moon or Mars by going over 22.2 statute miles, longer than Apollo 17’s Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt drove their Lunar Roving Vehicle.
(curiosity rover parachute flapping view from Mars Reconnaissance)
Curiosity, the most recent Mars rover, landed in 2012, and on May 9th proceeded to a second round of drilling at a site where “(In February) Curiosity took the first rock sample ever collected on Mars…called “John Klein.” The rover found evidence of an ancient environment favorable for microbial life.”
Also in orbit and currently at work is the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, launched in 2005, arriving Mars, 2006.
