[throwaway0a5e]

The progress from "we can hit a region and maybe last a year" circa the Spirit/Opportunity era to the current state of "if we don't hit it we're close enough to drive to it" has been amazing.

Better computing resources, better simulations, better materials, better and cheaper process control have enabled engineers throughout the entire supply chain to do more with less and when you take snapshots of progress at multi year intervals like NASA does with its Mars missions the progress really shows.

[BugWatch]

Oh, in Spirit's/Opportunity's case, that was 90 days (if memory serves me). So, they were successful beyond the wildest dreams. Curiosity, too.

[throwaway0a5e]

They knew they would last more than 90 days. 90 was just the number they picked for the "days before we can declare success" threshold. They weren't counting on 10yr.