Celebrating Five Years of Mars Rovers

NASA Rovers on Mars are celebrating five years of service to science this month. Spirit landed on Mars on 3 January 2004. A similar vehicle called opportunity alighted on 24 January in the same year. Not bad for two vehicles that were expected to last for just 3 months. Their longevity in the inclement environment of Mars has been quite a surprise.

This would be a good time to celebrate the achievements of the two vehicles. Between them they have traversed over 20 km of the dusty surface of the Red Planet. They have returned over 36 gigabytes of research data. Spirit has primarily explored a 150 km wide bowl shaped depression called the Gusev Crater. It has discovered rocks and water carrying evidence of much exposure to water. Opportunity is on the opposite side of the planet in a flat region known as Meridiani Planum. Its examination of surface rocks establishes that Mars has sustained flowing water at some point.

Not to say that the vehicles are completely devoid of wear and tear. Spirit only drives backwards because of damage to one wheel. Opportunity suffers from a glitch in its robotic arm. Dust on the solar panels has been a frequent concern causing the vehicles to be low on power.

But NASA is still optimistic to keep generating data courtesy the twin vehicles through the next year. The successor to the vehicles won't be launched till 2011: the Mars Science Laboratory is expected to be a much more advanced machine. It is expected that future missions to Mars will be collaborations between NASA and European counterparts given the prohibitive costs of going solo.