Highlights from landing day of Mars rover Spirit

http://www.spaceflightnews.net - Scenes from around NASA on the day Spirit landed on Mars. Spirit, mission designation MER-A (Mars Exploration Rover - A), is the first of the two rovers of NASA's ongoing Mars Exploration Rover Mission. It landed successfully on Mars at 04:35 Ground UTC on January 4, 2004, three weeks before its twin, Opportunity (MER-B), landed on the other side of the planet. Its name was chosen through a NASA-sponsored student essay competition.

The rover completed its planned 90-sol mission. Aided by cleaning events that resulted in higher power from its solar panels, Spirit went on to function effectively over twenty times longer than NASA planners expected following mission completion. Spirit also logged about 10 kilometers of driving instead of the planned 1 km, allowing more extensive geological analysis of Martian rocks and planetary surface features. Initial scientific results from the first phase of the mission (the 90-sol prime mission) were published in a special issue of the journal Science.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• NASA
• Mars
• exploration
• rover
• spirit
• opportunity
• JPL
• landing
• MER

[TheSkyhorse82]

I love that my little home-city, Canberra (capital of Australia) got a mention as part of the deep space tracking and communication network :) Great video, thanks for posting!

[MarsFKA]

My wife and I travelled 13,800 kilometres to watch Opportunity launch. It was just as well we went to Florida for 3 weeks because there were numerous delays. The rover was meant to launch 2 days after we arrived, but finally got away 4 nights before we left to come home. Wonderful! The sight and sound of that glorious rocket rising into a clear night sky will stay with us forever, and, 8 years later, "our" rover is still working.

[michelledoreen]

she was my coworker

[michelledoreen]

that woman is polly estabrook

[TheHotelMoxa]

8 years boys and girls,not in my wildest dreams I would not have thought that Oppy will still be roving today.

[xzaz2]

5:33 That woman in the white screams "Here" "Here" lol XD I'v watched this a million times.

[Southwestairlines737]

everybodys hard work pays off....totally awesome!

[MrTrancelator]

This is when I am proud to be human.

[michellemag83]

This is what passion looks like.

[terran97]

congratz guys you deserve it.