On January 3, 2004, Mars Exploration Rover Spirit began to make history. It first landed on the Red Planet, the beginning of one of NASA’s longest and most successful missions – and it helped us Earthlings better understand the beautiful universe we live in.
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Spirit was accompanied by his twin brother Opportunity three weeks later, and together, the two rovers discovered the possibility of water on the planet as a result of rock tests. The landing site for the second rover appeared to have the same qualities as a sea bed.
The primary mission was supposed to last only 90 sols, or 90 Mars days, but the rovers were so robust that they roamed the planet for years to collect data.
To give you an example of how many Spirit we are talking about distance. NASA only intended it to travel 600m or 0.4 miles. Instead, it logged in 7.73 km, or 7.8 miles. As a result, NASA was able to gather tons of geological information about the planet, much more than expected. This is the mission that makes people dream about colonizing Mars.
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We learned this much. We have learned that Mars has dust devils, just like on Earth. We were able to better map the surface of Mars, along with a better understanding of the types of materials that make up each section. It was a great mission in every sense of the word.
Unfortunately, on May 1, 2009, Spirit got stuck in some soft sand. It wasn’t the first time it had happened on the mission, and the rover could serve as a stationary analysis tool for a while while NASA tried to figure out how to get it free. That never happened. On January 26, 2010, NASA announced it would likely never be moved. Opportunity kept exploring.
Just two months later, Spirit stopped sending to NASA. Fourteen months later, NASA announced that it was no longer attempting to contact the rover and called its mission complete.