Spirit and Opportunity are conducting their operations on opposite sides of the planet, communicating with Earth through orbiting satellites, as well as directly. The MER missions were designed to last 90 sols each. A sol is one Martian day and is 24 hours and 39 minutes long. The rovers are capable of up to 100-meter traverses a day. Meeting these design goals, as well as retaining operation of it's science instruments would equate success.As of November 26, 2007, Spirit has been operating for 1386 Sols and has driven over 4.5 miles. Opportunity is in it's 1364 Sol of operation and has driven over 7 miles. The science the rovers have conducted has led to a better understanding of the Martian environment. Many features have been found to have been altered by water, verifying this notion for many scientists. Some even believe that Mars once had vast quantities of surface water in the form of inland seas with tidal cycles and lakes fed by flowing water in rivers streams and springs. However, not all agree with this idea and believe surface water was not as abundant as claimed and was seasonal in nature, rising to the surface in cycles. Whatever the case may be, most agree that water has played an important role in the Martian environment.
The MER mission is an incredible success, and despite the fact that the rovers are not in as good as shape as they used to be, they continue to explore the surface of Mars and conduct science at their given locations. They have weathered massive dust storms, climbed mountains and traversed perilous windswept plains. They have driven into craters and have studied geologic layers extending further into the geologic history than ever before. They continue to take breathtaking panoramic views of this alien world and transmit them back to Earth.
The MER mission also makes available for public download, all of the raw images downlinked from Mars nearly in real time. You can look at pictures of Mars today, which were taken today. However, the raw images appear as black and white tiles and need to be processed for color. You can also create panoramas as well as 3D anaglyphs. NASA provides there software free, as open source and as powerful programs. There is also a lot of other software available on the internet, much of it free, which can be used to process these raw images. Visit the Mars Desktop Explorer for more information.
The Mars Rover Project will now direct you to the separate sites that will outline their individual missions begining on Sol 1. The Spirit and Opportunity sites will use the rovers’ imagery and maps to look at their respective missions in detail. I hope you will find the sites interesting and join me in retracing the rover tracks of Spirit and Opportunity.
