when will the Long-Lived Mars Rovers Begin Year 7 on Red Planet (SPACE.com) ?”
Six years ago, NASA’s Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity touched down on the red planet with a team of scientists eagerly looking ahead to their short, three-month missions. As they embark on their seventh year on Mars, the longevity of the plucky rovers continues to amaze their minders back on Earth, even with Spirit potentially permanently stuck wheel-deep in Martian sand. Spirit set down at Gusev Crater on Jan. 3, 2004, at 11:35 P.M. EST, with its younger sister rover Opportunity landing on the other side of the planet — on the plains of Meridiani Planum — more than two weeks later at midnight EST on Jan. 25. While Sunday marks the mission’s sixth anniversary on Earth, it has only been 3.2 Martian years since one year on Mars is about 687 Earth days long. Originally slated to trundle across the Martian surface for only 90 days each, Spirit and Opportunity blew past those deadlines and have continued their missions for far longer than mission engineers ever thought possible. Opportun
Six years ago, NASA’s Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity touched down on the red planet with a team of scientists eagerly looking ahead to their short, three-month missions. As they embark on their seventh year on Mars, the longevity of the plucky rovers continues to amaze their minders back on Earth, even with Spirit potentially permanently stuck wheel-deep in Martian sand. Spirit set down at Gusev Crater on Jan. 3, 2004, at 11:35 p.m. EST, with its younger sister rover Opportunity landing on the other side of the planet — on the plains of Meridiani Planum — more than two weeks later at midnight EST on Jan. 25. While Sunday marks the mission’s sixth anniversary on Earth, it has only been 3.2 Martian years since one year on Mars is about 687 Earth days long. Originally slated to trundle across the Martian surface for only 90 days each, Spirit and Opportunity blew past those deadlines and have continued their missions for far longer than mission engineers ever thought possible. Opportun
