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Red Rover Goes to Mars

First Extension

In April 2004, two mobile robots named Spirit and Opportunity successfully completed their primary three-month missions on opposite sides of Mars and went into bonus overtime work. These twin vehicles of NASA¡¦s Mars Exploration Rover project continued their pursuit of geological clues about whether parts of Mars formerly had environments wet enough to be hospitable to life. Opportunity hit the jackpot early. It landed close to a thin outcrop of rocks. Within two months, its versatile instruments found evidence in those rocks that a body of salty water deep enough to splash in once flowed gently over the area. Preliminary interpretations point to a past environment that could have preserved fossil evidence of it, though these rovers were not equipped to detect life or to be fossil hunters.
As Opportunity¡¦s primary mission ran out and an extended mission began, the rover was headed for thicker layers of exposed bedrock that might bear evidence about how long or how often water covered the region. Spirit, during its primary mission, explored a plain strewn with volcanic rocks and pocked with impact craters. It found indications that small amounts of water may have gotten into cracks in the rock and may also have affected some of the rocks¡¦ surfaces. This did not indicate a particularly favorable past ?environment for life. Spirit¡¦s extended mission began with the rover starting a long trek toward a range of hills on the horizon whose rocks might have come from an earlier and wetter era of the region¡¦s past.

Second Extension as Adventure Continues
In late September 2004, NASA approved a second extension of the rovers¡¦ missions. The solar-powered machines were still in good health, though beginning to show signs of aging. They had come through the worst days of the martian year from a solar-energy standpoint. Also, they had resumed full operations after about two weeks of not driving in mid-September while communications were unreliable because Mars was passing nearly behind the Sun. Spirit had driven 3.6 kilometers (2.25 miles), six times the goal set in advance as a criterion for a successful mission. It was climbing hills where its examinations of exposed bedrock found more extensive alteration by water than what the rover had seen in rocks on the younger plain. During the long trek, Spirit¡¦s right front wheel developed excessive friction. Controllers found a way to press on with the exploration by sometimes driving the rover in reverse with the balky wheel dragging.
Opportunity had driven about 1.6 kilometers (1 mile). It was studying rocks and soils inside a crater about 130 meters (142 yards) wide and 22 meters (24 yards) deep. The rover entered this crater in June after careful analysis of its ability to climb back out. Inside, Opportunity examined layer upon layer of bedrock with characteristics similar to those of the outcrop inside the smaller crater where it landed. This indicated a much longer duration for the watery portion of the region¡¦s ancient past. The rover also found some features unlike any it had seen before, evidence of changes in the environment over time. Whether the rovers¡¦ unpredictable life spans would extend only a few more days or several more months, they had already racked up successes beyond the high expectations set for them when the Mars Exploration Rover project began.