The scale of things with the rovers on Mars is constantly tripping me up. Remember the first pictures from Opportunity, when it looked like it was sitting in a valley surrounded by mountains? Those "mountains" turned out to be about a meter high. Then there are the microscopic images...I have to remind myself that they show an area just (approx) 31x31 millimeters. The "macaroni" is only about a millimeter long.

The dimension of time is particularly difficult for me. The rovers sure aren't "frisky", and in fact they move so slowly that when I try to combine images into panoramae I'm always wrassling with the way shadows move between frames. An animation from the front HazCam of the arm at work shows that it takes a full sol to complete just a few "gestures".

But their snail's pace is a good thing on balance. The rovers move carefully and deliberately, "pondering" each move in their little brains and "consulting" with controllers back home. They won't do anything stupid like drive into a crevasse. They conserve energy (they're not power-hungry, they're power-misers), so that the slow pace should translate into a long lifespan. The race is not always to the swift, especially on Mars.

We just have to be patient with the little guys. They'll deliver the goods.