QUESTION:
How does the Sojourner keep all of the samples and data stored for
ten to twelve years?

ANSWER from Larry Crumpler on May 29, 1997:
In answer to your class question: "How does the Sojourner keep all of the
samples and data stored for ten to twelve years?"

Actually Soujouner will not be storing any samples of Mars rocks or data.
It will measure rock chemical composition (a bunch of numbers describing
the amount oif each element in a rock) and send this information, or data,
directly back to Earth.

Later, with future Mars missions there are some plans to have a roverlik
Soujouner, only bigger, select samples and "pile them up some place".
These rocks can then be retrieved by a later mission, maybe in ten to
twelve years, that would be designed to bring samples back to Earth.