subscribe to our feed.
The Mars rovers have been a complete success. The fact that they set down on January 3 and January 24 PST, 2004 and are still rolling is pretty unbelievable! And one of the mission’s primary goals, that of finding evidence of water on the Martian surface, seems to have yielded very fruitful results. But before we get there and give massive kudos to the various folks who have been involved in the mission, let’s just take a look at how each rover is equipped:
On May 17th, 2007, the Spirit Mars Rover captured this picture. “Spirit’s dragging right front wheel uncovered some of the best evidence Spirit has found for ancient water-rich environments in Gusev Crater — bright patches of almost pure, fine-grained silica (SiO2). On ancient Earth, warm, evaporating coastal waters deposited fine silica in shallow sediments.”
And Opportunity is sitting poised at “Duck Bay” and is ready to enter the Victoria Crater. But, as a lot of you have heard, a brewing dust storm has made ground operations on the Martian surface in this area much harder. This is especially bad since the storm can block much needed solar energy. It seems that scientists might want a look at a much bigger layer of the Martian landscape. Traversing Victoria Crater’s wall will give the little rover geologist a good look at many geological layers.
The pictures are completely stunning. The results so far have totally exceeded everyone’s expectations. And the data still comes in. Signs definitely show that the rovers are becoming much more sensitive to the Martian climate. And someday in the future, the rovers will become inoperable. That will be a sad day. But until that day - hats off to the Mars Rover mission and the people who have made it possible!
Photos Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech
If you would like to make a comment, please fill out the form below.
those robots are amazing. I think I remember the lifespan quoted at launch was about 30 days. I’m sure they were under estimating but it’s still a heck of accomplishment. fyi… I just read an article of the next mars rover to be launched in August 2007 to research the north pole area.
Hehe, I remember reading somewhere that a few NASA engineers admitted they pulled a “scotty” (i.e. they drastically understated their capability, then acted surprised when the stated limits were exceeded). It was rather clever of NASA.
It’s named after the Star Trek engineer; you know, the “givin’-her-all-she’s-got”-but-somehow-always-
finds-a-bit-more Scotty.