Anniversary: Spirit Reaches 2000th Sol on Mars

The Mars Exploration Rovers (MER) mission managers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), in Pasadena, California, are celebrating Spirit's record-setting anniversary of Martian presence. Originally designed to roam the sands of the Red Planet for just 90 sols (a mean Martian day has 24 hours, 39 minutes, and 35 seconds), the enduring rover completed yesterday its 2,000th sol on the planet. Now, each of the two rovers has its own record – Spirit for the longest presence, and Opportunity for the longest traveled distance of over ten miles.

Both rovers were launched in 2004, Spirit on June 10th and Opportunity on July 7th. They were delivered to Mars via Delta II heavy-lift rockets, and both reached their destinations safely. After a few initial glitches with the exploration robots, the two machines began to explore their designated objectives, and continued to do so after the initial 90-sol mission ended. NASA promptly proceeded to extending the mission program and funding, and has been continuously doing so ever since. The latest extension was granted in 2007 and lasts to the end of this year.

In recognition to the vast amounts of data beamed back by the rovers and their amazing endurance, the US Congress has recently acknowledged their merits, and commended engineers and mission controllers from JPL and the Cornell University for their contribution. In addition, astronomers and astrophysicists expressed their appreciations for the MER mission as well, by naming two asteroids after the robots, 39382 Opportunity and 37452 Spirit. JPL and NASA, in turn, named three hills to the North of the “Columbia Memorial Station” as the Apollo 1 Hills, and another complex the Columbia Hills, in memory of the seven astronauts that perished in the 2003 tragedy.

Over the course of their stay on Mars, the rovers managed to do something that was absolutely remarkable and priceless, namely to revive people's interest in space exploration and science, and to captivate the imagination of the little ones, with constantly updated image websites, which contain free pictures for anyone. The people's appreciation is noticeable in the large number of dedicated groups on social media networking sites, and the number of visitors on their respective official pages.

The only cloud that rained over Spirit's parade has been the fact that it is still stuck in Troy, a patch of loose soil on a Martian hill, while experts at JPL use the test rover in a sandbox to test escape routes. The rover has been stuck in since May 6th, and will most likely remain there for at least another few weeks. On the other side of the planet, Opportunity is trotting along happily, heading for the Endeavor crater.