Mars Landers Celebrate 4 Years On Surface

The Mars Lander "Spirit" celebrated it's 4th anniversary on the surface of the Red Planet yesterday and it's twin "Opportunity" will do the same on January 24th, not bad for missions that were expected to last in the neighborhood of 3 months each! "These rovers are incredibly resilient considering the extreme environment the hardware experiences every day," said John Callas, project manager for Spirit and Opportunity at Nasa's Jet Propulsion laboratory in Pasadena, California.

"We realise that a major rover component on either vehicle could fail at any time and end a mission with no advance notice, but on the other hand, we could accomplish the equivalent duration of four more prime missions on each rover in the year ahead."

The 4 years of service have not been easy on the rovers though, Spirit must drive backwards everywhere it goes because of a jammed wheel; while Opportunity's robotic arm suffers from a glitch in a shoulder joint because of a broken electrical wire.

Source: BBC News

Opportunity to descend into Mars crator

Yesterday morning, NASA engineers sent commands to the Mars rover Opportunity to begin its trek into Victoria Crater, and the robot signaled a confirmation. The first step is for the rover to gingerly maneuver below the rim of the crater and then quickly roll back out. The hope is that Opportunity will be able to travel 40 feet down the crater toward a bright band of rocks that scientists believe represent the ancient surface of the planet. CNN has more here.

Opportunity knocking?

NASA has green lighted the decent of the Martian Rover 'Opportunity' into a large crater dubbed Victoria. The go ahead was given when it was determined that the scientific returns out weighed the risk to the rover. Opportunity and it's sister, 'Spirit', have been roving the Martian landscape since January of 2004, in what was to be a 90 day mission. Victoria is said to have been formed as the result of a collision with a meteor and is some 200 to 230 feet deep. Opportunity will first edge its way up to the rim of the crater and then back away to see how it performs, if it is determined to go forward the first target will be a ring about 10 feet down which represents the pre-impact surface of the planet, perhaps billions of years ago. Good luck little rover! CNN story here.

http://www.nasa.gov/rovers