The Adventure Twins
Spirit and Opportunity are twin rovers that were sent to explore Mars. Their mission was seeking evidence about whether Mars might once have been capable of supporting life
Spirit and Opportunity are twin rovers that were sent to explore Mars. Their mission was seeking evidence about whether Mars might once have been capable of supporting life
Spirit and Opportunity landed on Mars January 3 and January 24, 2004 PST (Jan. 4 and Jan. 25 UTC). Both rovers lived well beyond their planned 90-day missions. Opportunity worked nearly 15 years on Mars and broke the driving record for putting the most miles on the odometer.
The twin geologists, Spirit and Opportunity, have both found dramatic evidence that:
With data from the rovers, mission scientists have reconstructed an ancient past when Mars was awash in water. Spirit and Opportunity each found evidence for past wet conditions that possibly could have supported microbial life.
Both rovers exceeded their planned 90-day mission lifetimes by many years. Spirit lasted 20 times longer than its original design until it concluded its mission in 2010. Opportunity has worked on Mars longer than any other robot—nearly 15 years. The rover last communicated with Earth on June 10, 2018, as a planet-wide dust storm blanketed the solar-powered rover`s location on Mars. In 2015, Opportunity broke the record for extraterrestrial travel by driving more than the distance of a marathon, with a total of 28.06 miles (45.16 kilometers).
First among the mission's scientific goals was to search for and characterize a wide range of rocks and soils for clues to past water activity on Mars. The rovers were targeted to sites on opposite sides of Mars that looked like they were affected by liquid water in the past. Opportunity landed at Meridiani Planum, a possible former lake in a giant impact crater. Spirit landed at Gusev Crater, a place where mineral deposits suggested that Mars had a wet history.
Each rover bounced onto the surface inside a landing craft protected by airbags. When they stopped rolling, the airbags were deflated and the landing craft opened. The rovers rolled out to take panoramic images. These images gave scientists the information they needed to select promising geological targets to tell part of the story of water in Mars' past. Then, the rovers drove to those locations and beyond to perform close-up scientific investigations.