Water cannot fly. Meanwhile, 747s take off from airports all the time. Plenty of air routes go over arctic areas (been there, done that). Going directly over the north pole leads to Russia, which has very picky restrictions about air travel. It also is not good for the magnetic compass and the gyrocompass to go over a magnetic and rotational pole. Same thing for the south pole, with the added problem of being very far from an alternative landing point. I have never heard that "no one" has flown over either pole. No particular point in doing so. (More impressive for submarines to surface at the north pole.) Many air routes deviate from Great Circles owing to avoidance of political regions. And there are few air routes where there is little market. Not a lot of people have a need to travel directly from Botswana to Paraguay. As for the Mars Rover, ask NASA. They do everything they can to convince the world they are still a class act.
Water cannot fly. Meanwhile, 747s take off from airports all the time. Plenty of air routes go over arctic areas (been there, done that). Going directly over the north pole leads to Russia, which has very picky restrictions about air travel. It also is not good for the magnetic compass and the gyrocompass to go over a magnetic and rotational pole. Same thing for the south pole, with the added problem of being very far from an alternative landing point. I have never heard that "no one" has flown over either pole. No particular point in doing so. (More impressive for submarines to surface at the north pole.) Many air routes deviate from Great Circles owing to avoidance of political regions. And there are few air routes where there is little market. Not a lot of people have a need to travel directly from Botswana to Paraguay. As for the Mars Rover, ask NASA. They do everything they can to convince the world they are still a class act.