9/11 Mars Tributes Could Last 'Millions of Years'

By Ian O'Neill, Discovery News, 09.10.11 (2011 Reprint)As a sign of strength, dignity and remembrance, two Mars rovers carry quiet tributes to those who died during the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.Although the fact that both of NASA's Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, have an instrument containing aluminum collected from the downed World Trade Center towers was revealed in 2004 -- shortly after the robotic pair began their epic missions on the alien world -- NASA has reminded us that the legacy lives on, 10 years after that tragic day. What's more, these extraterrestrial robotic tributes could survive for millions of years in the Martian environment.The story began at a company called Honeybee Robotics, based in Lower Manhattan, that was tasked with manufacturing the drilling tools designed to allow NASA's Mars rovers to grind the surface layers off Martian rocks and analyze their composition.Striving to complete their work before Spirit's and Opportunity's launch window in 2003, work at the company stopped abruptly at 8:46 a.m., on Sept. 11, 2001. That was when the hijacked American Airlines Flight 11 crashed into the North Tower, only a short distance from Honeybee. Seventeen minutes later, United Airlines Flight 175 collided with ...