Spirit rover
Artist's Concept of Rover on Mars (credit: Maas Digital LLC)
Organization	NASA
Mission type	Rover
Orbital insertion date	Landed on January 4, 2004 (entered atmosphere and landed 1618 days ago)
Mission duration	undefined (1618 days since landing)
NSSDC ID	2003-027A
Webpage	JPL's Mars Exploration Rover home page

MER-A (Mars Exploration Rover - A), known as Spirit, is the first of the two rovers of NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Mission. A rover is a Space exploration vehicle designed to move across the surface of a Planet or other Astronomical body. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration ( NASA, ˈnæsə is an agency of the United States government, responsible for the nation's public space program NASA 's Mars Exploration Rover ( MER) Mission is an ongoing robotic mission of exploring Mars, that began in 2003 with the sending of It landed successfully on Mars on 04:35 Ground UTC on January 4, 2004, three weeks before its twin Opportunity (MER-B) landed on the other side of the planet. Spacecraft Event Time (SCET is the time an event occurs at a spacecraft Events 46 BC - Titus Labienus defeats Julius Caesar in the Battle of Ruspina. "MMIV" redirects here For the Modest Mouse album see " Baron von Bullshit Rides Again " MER-B ( Mars Exploration Rover - B) known as Opportunity, is the second of the two rovers of NASA 's Mars Exploration Its name was chosen through a NASA-sponsored student essay competition. NASA 's Mars Exploration Rover ( MER) Mission is an ongoing robotic mission of exploring Mars, that began in 2003 with the sending of

The rover has continued to function effectively over seventeen times longer than NASA planners expected, allowing it to perform extensive geological analysis of Martian rocks and planetary surface features; as of 2008 its mission is ongoing. Geology (from Greek γη gê, "earth" and λόγος Logos, "speech" lit 2008 ( MMVIII) is the current year in accordance with the Gregorian calendar, a Leap year that started on Tuesday of the Common An archive of approximately weekly updates on its status can be found at the NASA/JPL website. Initial scientific results from the first phase of the mission (roughly, the 90-sol prime mission) were published in a special issue of the journal Science^[1]

Contents 1 Landing site: Columbia Memorial Station 2 Events and discoveries 2.1 Timeline 2.2 Sleepy Hollow 2.3 First color photograph 2.4 January 21 flash memory management anomaly 2.5 History's first grinding of a rock on Mars 2.6 Mimi 2.7 Humphrey and clues for water 2.8 Bonneville Crater 2.9 Missoula and Lahontan Craters, en route to Columbia Hills 2.10 Columbia Hills 2.11 Husband Hill summit 2.12 Home Plate 2.13 McCool Hill 2.14 Low Ridge Haven 2.15 Dust storms 2.16 Microbe clue 3 Astronomy 4 Software upgrades 5 Equipment failures 6 Honors 7 See also 8 References 9 External links 9.1 JPL, MSSS, and NASA links 9.2 Other links

Landing site: Columbia Memorial Station

Spirit landed in Gusev crater about 10 km from the center of the target ellipse^[2] at latitude 14. Various schemes have been used or proposed to keep track of time and date on the planet Mars independently of Earth time and calendars The Mars Global Surveyor ( MGS) was a US Spacecraft developed by NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and launched NASA 's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter ( MRO) is a multipurpose Spacecraft designed to conduct Reconnaissance and exploration of Mars Gusev Crater is a crater on the planet Mars and is located at 175 In the broadest sense the term impact crater can be applied to any depression natural or manmade resulting from the high velocity impact of a projectile with larger body The kilometre ( American spelling: kilometer) symbol km is a unit of Length in the Metric system, equal to one thousand Latitude, usually denoted symbolically by the Greek letter phi ( Φ) gives the location of a place on Earth (or other planetary body north or south of the 5718° S, longitude 175. Longitude (ˈlɒndʒɪˌtjuːd or ˈlɒŋgɪˌtjuːd symbolized by the Greek character Lambda (λ is the east-west Geographic coordinate measurement 4785° E. ^[3]

A panorama shows a slightly rolling surface, littered with small rocks, with hills on the horizon up to 27 km away. ^[4] The MER team named the landing site "Columbia Memorial Station," in honor of the seven astronauts killed in the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster. An astronaut or cosmonaut (космона́вт) is a person trained The Space Shuttle Columbia disaster occurred on February 1, 2003, when the Space Shuttle ''Columbia'' disintegrated over Texas

On January 27 NASA memorialized the crew of Apollo 1 by naming three hills to the north of "Columbia Memorial Station" as the Apollo 1 Hills. Events 98 - Trajan becomes Roman Emperor after the death of Nerva. On February 2, the astronauts on Columbia's final mission were further memorialized when NASA named a set of hills to the east of the landing site the Columbia Hills Complex, denoting seven peaks in that area Anderson, Brown, Chawla, Clark, Husband, McCool and Ramon. Events 962 - Translatio imperii: Pope John XII crowns Otto I Holy Roman Emperor, the first Holy Roman Emperor The Columbia Hills are a range of low hills inside Gusev crater on Mars. (NASA has submitted these geographical feature names to the IAU for approval. )

Events and discoveries

Timeline

The primary surface mission for Spirit was planned to last 90 Sols. Various schemes have been used or proposed to keep track of time and date on the planet Mars independently of Earth time and calendars The mission received several extensions and as of April 2008 had passed 1500 Sols, more than 17 times the primary mission length. On August 11, 2007, Spirit became the Mars lander with the second longest operational duration on the surface of Mars at 1282 Sols, one Sol longer than the Viking 2 lander. Events 2492 BC - Traditional date of the defeat of Bel by Hayk, progenitor and founder of the Armenian nation Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. The Viking 2 mission was part of the Viking program to Mars, and consisted of an orbiter and a lander essentially identical to that of the Viking 1 Viking 2 was powered by a nuclear cell whereas Spirit is powered by solar arrays. Currently the Mars lander with longest operational period is Viking 1 which lasted for 2245 Sols on the surface of Mars. Viking 1 was the first of two spacecraft sent to Mars as part of NASA 's Viking program, and holds the record for the longest Mars surface mission

An archive of approximately weekly updates on the rover's status can be found at Spirit Update Archive. ^[5] The following paragraphs discuss the more notable findings.

Sleepy Hollow

"Sleepy Hollow," a shallow depression in the Mars ground near NASA's Spirit rover, was targeted as an early destination when the rover drove off its lander platform. For other uses see Sleepy Hollow. Sleepy Hollow is the name given to a circular shallow depression in Gusev Crater on Mars NASA scientists were very interested in this crater. It is 9 meters (30 feet) across and about 12 meters (40 feet) north of the lander.

First 3-D panorama of landing site: the crater under the sun is "Sleepy Hollow" received on 5 January. Events 1477 - Battle of Nancy: Charles the Bold is killed and Burgundy becomes part of France.

"Just as the ancient mariners used sextants for 'shooting the Sun,' as they called it, we were successfully able to shoot the Sun with our panorama camera, then use that information to point the antenna," said JPL's Matt Wallace, mission manager.

First color photograph

To the right is the first color image taken by the panoramic camera on the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit. It was the highest resolution image taken on the surface of another planet. "We're seeing a panoramic mosaic of four pancam images high by three wide," said camera designer Jim Bell of Cornell University. The picture shown originally had a full size of 4,000 by 3,000 pixels. However, a complete pancam panorama is even 8 times larger than that, and could be taken in stereo (I. e. , two complete pictures, making the resolution twice as large again. ) The colors are fairly accurate. (For a technical explanation, see colors outside the range of the human eye. )

January 21 flash memory management anomaly

On 2004 January 21 (Sol 18), Spirit abruptly ceased communicating with mission control. "MMIV" redirects here For the Modest Mouse album see " Baron von Bullshit Rides Again " Events 1189 - Philip II of France and Richard I of England begin to assemble troops to wage the Third Crusade. The next day the rover radioed a 7. 8 bit/s beep, confirming that it had received a transmission from Earth but indicating that the spacecraft believed it was in a fault mode. Commands would only be responded to intermittently. This was described as a very serious anomaly, but potentially recoverable if it were a software or memory corruption issue rather than a serious hardware failure. Spirit was commanded to transmit engineering data, and on January 23 sent several short low-bitrate messages before finally transmitting 73 megabits via X band to Mars Odyssey. Events 393 - Roman Emperor Theodosius I proclaims his nine year old son Honorius co-emperor The X band is part of the Microwave region of the Electromagnetic spectrum. 2001 Mars Odyssey is a Robotic spacecraft Orbiting the planet Mars. The readings from the engineering data suggested that the rover was not staying in sleep mode. As such, it was wasting its battery power and overheating — risk factors that could potentially destroy the rover if not fixed soon. On Sol 20, the command team sent it the command SHUTDWN_DMT_TIL ("Shutdown Dammit Until <time>") to try to cause it to suspend itself until a given time. It seemingly ignored the command.

The leading theory at the time was that the rover was stuck in a "reboot loop". The rover is programmed to reboot if there's a fault aboard itself. However, if there is a fault that occurs during reboot, it could potentially reboot forever. The fact that the problem persisted through reboot suggested that the error was not in RAM, but in either the flash memory, the EEPROM, or a hardware fault. Flash memory is non-volatile computer memory that can be electrically erased and reprogrammed EEPROM (also written E2PROM and pronounced e-e-prom or simply e-squared which stands for E lectrically E rasable P rogrammable The last case would likely mean the doom of the rover. Anticipating the potential for errors in the flash memory and EEPROM, the designers had made it so that the rover could be booted without ever touching the flash memory. The radio itself could decode a limited commandset — enough to tell the rover to reboot without using flash. Without access to flash memory, Spirit booted fine, and the reboot cycle was broken.

On January 24 the rover repair team announced that the problem was with Spirit's flash memory and the software that wrote to it. Events 41 - Gaius Caesar (Caligula, known for his eccentricity and cruel Despotism, is Assassinated by his disgruntled The flash hardware was believed to be working correctly but the file management module in the software was "not robust enough" for the operations the Spirit was engaged in when the problem occurred, indicating that the problem was caused by a software bug as opposed to faulty hardware. NASA engineers finally came to the conclusion that there were too many files on the file system, which was a relatively minor problem. Most of these files contained unneeded in-flight data. After realizing what the problem was, the engineers deleted some files, and eventually reformatted the entire flash memory system. On February 6 (Sol 33), the rover was restored to its original working condition, and science activities resumed. Events 46 BC - Julius Caesar defeats the combined army of Pompeian followers and Numidians under Metellus Scipio ^[6]

History's first grinding of a rock on Mars

The round, shallow depression in this image resulted from history's first grinding of a rock on Mars. The Rock Abrasion Tool on NASA's Spirit rover ground off the surface of a patch 45. The Rock Abrasion Tool (RAT is a grinding and brushing installation on NASA ’s twin Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit (MER-A and Opportunity 5 millimeters (1. 8 inches) in diameter on a rock called Adirondack during Spirit's 34th sol on Mars, February 6, 2004. Inches redirects here To see the Les Savy Fav album see Inches. Adirondack is the nickname for Mars Exploration Rover Spirit 's first target rock. The hole is 2. 65 millimeters (0. 1 inch) deep, exposing fresh interior material of the rock for close inspection with the rover's microscopic imager and two spectrometers on the robotic arm. This image was taken by Spirit's panoramic camera, providing a quick visual check of the success of the grinding.

"The RAT performed beyond our expectations," beamed Steve Gorevan, of Honeybee Robotics, New York, lead scientist for the rock abrasion tools on both rovers. The Rock Abrasion Tool (RAT is a grinding and brushing installation on NASA ’s twin Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit (MER-A and Opportunity "With the docile cutting parameters we set, I didn't think that it would cut this deep. In fact, when we saw virtually a complete circle, I was thrilled beyond anything I could have ever dreamed. Following up that glorious circular brushing — it's like back-to-back homers. "

Mimi

This color image taken by the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit's panoramic camera on Sol 40 is centered on an unusually flaky rock called Mimi. Mimi is only one of many features in the area known as "Stone Council", but looks very different from any rock that scientists have seen at the Gusev crater site so far. Mimi's flaky appearance leads scientists to a number of hypotheses. Mimi could have been subjected to pressure either through burial or impact, or may have once been a dune that was cemented into flaky layers, a process that sometimes involves the action of water.

Humphrey and clues for water

On March 5, 2004, NASA announced that Spirit had found hints of water history on Mars in a rock dubbed "Humphrey". Events 363 - Roman Emperor Julian moves from Antioch with an army of 90000 to attack the Sassanid Empire, in a "MMIV" redirects here For the Modest Mouse album see " Baron von Bullshit Rides Again " Dr. Raymond Arvidson, Ph. D. , the McDonnell University Professor and chair of Earth and planetary sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, reported during a NASA press conference: "If we found this rock on Earth, we would say it is a volcanic rock that had a little fluid moving through it. " In contrast to the rocks found by the twin rover Opportunity, this one was formed from magma and then acquired bright material in small crevices, which look like crystallized minerals. Magma (Plurals magmas and magmata) is molten rock that sometimes forms beneath the surface of the Earth (or any other Terrestrial planet If this interpretation holds true, the minerals were most likely dissolved in water, which was either carried inside the rock or interacted with it at a later stage, after it formed. ^[7]

Bonneville Crater

On 11 March 2004, the Spirit rover reached Bonneville crater after a 400-yard (370 m) journey. Events 1425 BC - Thutmose III, Pharaoh of Egypt, dies (according to the Low Chronology of the 18th Dynasty "MMIV" redirects here For the Modest Mouse album see " Baron von Bullshit Rides Again " Bonneville Crater is an Impact crater on Mars. It is located within the much larger Gusev crater. This crater is 150 yards (140 m) across and about 30 yards (27 m) deep. JPL decided that it would be a bad idea to send the rover down into the crater, as they saw no targets of interest inside. Spirit drove along the southern rim, tore up some sand dunes, and continued to the southwest towards the Columbia Hills.

Looking back at the lander.

Bonneville Crater.

Missoula and Lahontan Craters, en route to Columbia Hills

Spirit reached Missoula crater on Sol 105. The crater is roughly 100 yards (91 m) across and 20 yards (18 m) deep. Missoula crater was not considered a high priority target due to the older rocks it contained. The rover skirted the northern rim, and continued to the southeast.

It then reached Lahontan crater on Sol 118, and drove along the rim until Sol 120. Lahontan is about 60 yards (55 m) across and about 10 yards (9. 1 m) deep. A long, snaking sand dune stretches away from its southwestern side, and Spirit went around it, because loose sand dunes present an unknown risk to the ability of the rover wheels to get traction.

Columbia Hills

On Sol 159, Spirit reached the first of many targets at the base of the Columbia Hills called West Spur. The Columbia Hills are a range of low hills inside Gusev crater on Mars. Hank's Hollow was studied for 23 sols. Within Hank's Hollow was the strange looking rock dubbed "Pot of Gold". Pot of Gold is the nickname for a knobby softball-sized rock in Gusev Crater on Mars.

From here, Spirit took a northerly path along the base of the hill towards the target Wooly Patch, which was studied from Sol 192 to Sol 199. By Sol 203, Spirit had driven southward up the hill and arrived at the rock dubbed "Clovis". Clovis was ground and analyzed from Sol 210 to Sol 225. Following Clovis came the targets of Ebenezer (Sols 226-235), Tetl (Sol 270), Uchben and Palinque (Sols 281-295), and Lutefisk (Sols 296-303). From Sols 239 to 262, Spirit powered down for solar conjunction, when communications with the Earth are blocked. Solar conjunction occurs when a Planet or other Solar system object is on the opposite side of the Sun from the Earth.

Slowly, Spirit has made its way around the summit of Husband Hill, and at Sol 344 was ready to climb over the newly designated "Cumberland Ridge" and into "Larry's Lookout" and "Tennessee Valley". Larry's Lookout is located on Husband Hill, Gusev Crater, Mars.

On Sol 371, Spirit arrived at a rock named "Peace" near the top of Cumberland Ridge. Spirit ground it with the RAT tool on Sol 373.

By Sol 390 (Mid-February 2005), Spirit was advancing towards "Larry's Lookout", by driving up the hill in reverse. The scientists at this time were trying to conserve as much energy as possible for the climb.

Spirit also investigated some targets along the way, including the soil target, "Paso Robles", which contained the highest amount of salt found on the red planet. Salt is a Dietary mineral composed primarily of Sodium chloride that is essential for Animal life but toxic to most land plants The soil also contained a high amount of phosphorus in its composition, however not nearly as high as another rock sampled by Spirit, "Wishstone". Phosphorus, (ˈfɒsfərəs is the Chemical element that has the symbol P and Atomic number 15 Squyres said of the discovery, "We're still trying to work out what this means, but clearly, with this much salt around, water had a hand here".

On 9 March 2005 (probably during the Martian night), the rover's solar panel efficiency jumped from around 60% of what it had originally been to 93%, followed on 10 March by the sighting of dust devils. Events 590 - Bahram Chobin is crowned as king Barham VI of Persia. Year 2005 ( MMV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Events 241 BC - First Punic War: Battle of the Aegates Islands - The Romans sink the Carthaginian fleet bringing A dust devil is a strong well-formed and relatively long-lived whirlwind, ranging from small (half a meter wide and a few meters tall to large (over 10 meters wide and over NASA scientists speculate a dust devil must have swept the solar panels clean, possibly significantly extending the duration of the mission. This also marks the first time dust devils had been spotted by either Spirit or Opportunity, easily one of the top highlights of the mission to date. Dust devils had previously been photographed by only the Pathfinder probe.

Pot of Gold rock

Spirit's traverse up Husband Hill

Spirit artificially added to image (taken by itself) of Larry's Lookout

Photograph of a Martian sunset taken by Spirit at Gusev crater, May 19th, 2005.

Husband Hill summit

On Sol 582, August 21, 2005, Spirit reached the summit of Husband Hill and acquired a 360 degree panorama picture. Events 1192 - Minamoto Yoritomo becomes Seii Tai Shōgun and the De facto ruler of Japan. Year 2005 ( MMV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Husband Hill is one of the Columbia Hills in Gusev crater, Mars.

View from the Summit taken by Spirit on August 23, 2005 as the rover completed climb up "Husband Hill. "

Vista while descending Husband Hill

Home Plate

Spirit arrived at the north west corner of Home Plate, a raised and layered outcrop on sol 744 after an effort to maximize driving. Home Plate is an informal nickname used by NASA scientists to refer to a geological feature on Mars currently under study by the Spirit rover Scientific observations have been conducted with Spirit's robotic arm.

Curious rock near edge of "Home Plate" with a jutting portion. (Animated GIF image for stereoscopic perception).

Picture of Spirit, including tracks, taken from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter

During 2007 Spirit spent several months near the base of the Home Plate plateau. NASA 's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter ( MRO) is a multipurpose Spacecraft designed to conduct Reconnaissance and exploration of Mars On sol 1306 Spirit climbed onto the eastern edge of the plateau. In September and October it examined rocks and soils at several locations on the southern half of the plateau. On November 6th Spirit had reached the western edge of Home Plate and starting taking pictures for a panoramic overview of the western valley with Grissom Hill and Husband Hill visible. The panorama image was published on NASA's website on January 3rd, 2008 to little attention, until January 23rd, when an independent website^[8] published a magnified detail of the left side of the original image in which is visible what looks much like a dark green humanoid sitting on a rock or walking down a hill with the right arm raised. This strange formation is also visible when viewing the image in full resolution on the NASA website. The presence of the feature in all separate images which were combined to make the color image as well as NavCam images from several days earlier, conclusively show that it is a permanent feature.

McCool Hill

Spirit's next stop was originally planned to be the north face of McCool Hill, where Spirit would receive adequate sunlight during the Martian winter. McCool Hill is the tallest of the Columbia Hills in Gusev crater, Mars. On March 16, 2006 JPL announced that Spirit's troublesome front wheel had stopped working altogether. Events 597 BC - Babylonians capture Jerusalem, replace Jehoiachin with Zedekiah as king Despite this, Spirit was still making progress toward McCool Hill because the control team programmed the rover to drive toward McCool Hill backwards, dragging its broken wheel. ^[9] In late March, Spirit encountered loose soil which was impeding its progress toward McCool Hill. A decision was made to terminate attempts to reach McCool Hill and instead park on a nearby ridge named Low Ridge Haven.

Low Ridge Haven

Reaching the ridge on April 9, 2006 and parking on the ridge with an 11° incline to the north, Spirit spent the next eight months on the ridge during which time undertaking observations of changes in the surrounding area. ^[10] No drives were attempted because of the low power levels the rover was experiencing during the Martian winter. The rover made its first drive, a short turn to position targets of interest within reach of the robotic arm, in early November 2006, following the shortest days of winter and solar conjunction when communications with Earth were severely limited. As of sol 1538 (April 30, 2008), Spirit's total odometry was 7,528 metres (4. Events 313 - Roman emperor Licinius unifies the entire Eastern Roman Empire under his rule 2008 ( MMVIII) is the current year in accordance with the Gregorian calendar, a Leap year that started on Tuesday of the Common 68 mi). ^[11]

While at Low Ridge, Spirit imaged two rocks of similar chemical nature to that of Opportunity's Heat Shield Rock, a meteorite on the surface of Mars. Heat Shield Rock is a Basketball -sized Iron-nickel meteorite found on Mars by the Mars rover Opportunity in January 2005 A meteorite is a natural object originating in Outer space that survives an impact with the Earth 's surface Named "Zhong Shan" for Sun Yat-sen and "Allan Hills" for the location in Antarctica where several Martian meteorites have been found, they stood out against the background rocks which were darker. Sun Yat-sen ( November 12, 1866 &ndash March 12, 1925) was a Chinese Revolutionary and political leader often Allan Hills is a site in Victoria Land, in the Eastern region of Antarctica, at the end of the Transantarctic Mountains range Further spectrographic testing is being done to determine the exact composition of these rocks, which may turn out to also be meteorites.

Dust storms

Towards the end of June, 2007, a series of dust storms began clouding the Martian atmosphere with dust. The storms intensified and by July 20, both Spirit and Opportunity were facing the real possibility of system failure due to lack of power. NASA released a statement to the press which said (in part) "We're rooting for our rovers to survive these storms, but they were never designed for conditions this intense" ^[12]. The key problem caused by the dust storms is a dramatic reduction in solar power. There was so much dust in the atmosphere that it was blocking 99 percent of direct sunlight to the rover Opportunity, whereas Spirit was getting slightly more sunlight.

Normally the solar arrays are able to generate up to 700 watt hours of power a day. After the storms, the amount of power generated was greatly reduced to 128 watts. If the rovers generate less than 150 watt hours per day they have to start draining their batteries to run survival heaters. If the batteries run dry, key electrical elements are likely to fail due to the intense cold. Both landers were put into the lowest-power setting to wait out the storms. In early August the storms began to clear slightly and the rovers successfully charged their batteries. They were kept in hibernation to wait out the rest of the storm. ^[13]

Microbe clue

Spirit uncovered a patch of ground with its inoperative wheel that scientists say shows evidence of a past environment that would have been perfect for microbial life. It is similar to areas on Earth where water or steam from hot springs came into contact with volcanic rocks. On Earth, these are locations that tend to teem with bacteria, said rover chief scientist Steve Squyres. Steven W Squyres (born 1957) is the Goldwin Smith Professor of Astronomy at Cornell University in "We're really excited about this," he told a meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU). The area is extremely rich in silica - the main ingredient of window glass. The researchers have now concluded that the bright material must have been produced in one of two ways. One: hot-spring deposits produced when water dissolved silica at one location and then carried it to another (i. e. a geyser). Two: acidic steam rising through cracks in rocks stripped them of their mineral components, leaving silica behind. "The important thing is that whether it is one hypothesis or the other, the implications for the former habitability of Mars are pretty much the same," Squyres explained to BBC News. Hot water provides an environment in which microbes can thrive and the precipitation of that silica entombs and preserves them. A microorganism (also spelled micro organism or micro-organism and also called a microbe) is an Organism that is Microscopic (usually Squyres added, "You can go to hot springs and you can go to fumaroles and at either place on Earth it is teeming with life - microbial life. A hot spring is a spring that is produced by the emergence of geothermally heated Groundwater from the earth's crust. A microorganism (also spelled micro organism or micro-organism and also called a microbe) is an Organism that is Microscopic (usually ^[14][15]

Astronomy

Spirit pointed its cameras towards the sky and observed a transit of the Sun by Mars' moon Deimos (see Transit of Deimos from Mars). EARTH was a short-lived Japanese vocal trio which released 6 singles and 1 album between 2000 and 2001 The term transit or astronomical transit has three meanings in astronomy A transit is the astronomical event that occurs when one The Sun (Sol is the Star at the center of the Solar System. A natural satellite or moon is a Celestial body that Orbits a Planet or smaller body which is called the primary. TemplateInfobox Planet.--> Deimos (ˈdaɪməs; also /ˈdiːməs/ A transit of Deimos across the Sun as seen from Mars takes place when Deimos passes directly between the Sun and a point on the surface of Mars obscuring It also took the only photo of Earth from the surface of another planet in early March 2004.

In fall of 2005, Spirit took advantage of a favorable energy situation to make multiple nighttime observations of both of Mars' moons Phobos and Deimos. TemplateInfobox Planet.--> Deimos (ˈdaɪməs; also /ˈdiːməs/ These observations included a "lunar" (or rather phobal) eclipse as Spirit watched Phobos disappear into Mars's shadow. A lunar eclipse occurs whenever the Moon passes through some portion of the Earth's shadow An eclipse is an astronomical event that occurs when one Celestial object moves into the shadow of another Some of Spirit's star gazing was designed to look for a predicted meteor shower caused by Halley's Comet but no images of meteors have been formally released. A meteor shower, some of which are known as a "meteor storm" or "meteor outburst" is a celestial event where a group of meteors are observed to radiate from one point Halley's Comet, officially designated 1P/Halley and also referred to as Comet Halley after Edmond Halley, is a Comet that can be seen every

A transit of Mercury from Mars took place on January 12, 2005 from about 14:45 UTC to 23:05 UTC. A transit of Mercury across the Sun as seen from Mars takes place when the planet Mercury passes directly between the Sun and Mars obscuring Events 475 - Basiliscus becomes Byzantine Emperor, with a coronation ceremony in the Hebdomon palace in Constantinople Year 2005 ( MMV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Theoretically, this could have been observed by both Spirit and Opportunity; however, camera resolution did not permit seeing Mercury's 6.1" angular diameter. MER-B ( Mars Exploration Rover - B) known as Opportunity, is the second of the two rovers of NASA 's Mars Exploration A minute of arc, arcminute, or MOA is a unit of angular measurement, equal to one sixtieth (1/60 of one degree. They were able to observe transits of Deimos across the Sun, but at 2' angular diameter, Deimos is about 20 times larger than Mercury's 6. TemplateInfobox Planet.--> Deimos (ˈdaɪməs; also /ˈdiːməs/ A minute of arc, arcminute, or MOA is a unit of angular measurement, equal to one sixtieth (1/60 of one degree. 1" angular diameter. Ephemeris data generated by JPL Horizons indicates that Opportunity would have been able to observe the transit from the start until local sunset at about 19:23 UTC Earth time, while Spirit would have been able to observe it from local sunrise at about 19:38 UTC until the end of the transit. JPL Horizons On-Line Ephemeris System provides easy access to key solar system data and flexible production of highly accurate Ephemerides for solar system objects ^[16]

Software upgrades

On January 4, 2007, both rovers received new flight software to the onboard computers. Events 46 BC - Titus Labienus defeats Julius Caesar in the Battle of Ruspina. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. The update was received just in time for the third anniversary of their landing. The new systems let the rovers decide whether or not to transmit an image, and whether or not to extend their arms to examine rocks, which would save much time for scientists as they would not have to sift through hundreds of images to find the one they want, or examine the surroundings to decide to extend the arms and examine the rocks. ^[17]

Equipment failures

Both rovers have passed their original mission time of 90 sols many times over. However, some problems have developed. On sol 779, the right front wheel ceased working after having covered 4. 2 mi (7 km) on Mars. Engineers began driving the rover backwards, dragging the dead wheel. The grinding surface of the Rock Abrasion Tool has also worn down, and the device can only be used to brush targets. The Miniature Thermal Emission Spectrometer has been turned off due to dust contaminating the optics. ^[18] All of the other science instruments and engineering cameras continue to function. The Mössbauer spectrometer takes much longer to produce results than it did earlier in the mission because of the decay of its radioactive source. Mössbauer spectroscopy (Mößbauer is a spectroscopic technique based on the Mössbauer effect.

Honors

Honoring Spirit's great contribution to the exploration of Mars, the asteroid 37452 Spirit has been named after it. Asteroids, sometimes called Minor planets or planetoids', are bodies—primarily of the inner Solar System —that are smaller than planets but Asteroid 37452 Spirit was discovered on September 24, 1960 by Ingrid van Houten-Groeneveld, Cornelis Johannes van Houten, and ^[19] The name was proposed by Ingrid van Houten-Groeneveld who along with Cornelis Johannes van Houten and Tom Gehrels discovered the asteroid on September 24, 1960. Ingrid van Houten-Groeneveld is a Dutch Astronomer. In a jointly-credited trio with Tom Gehrels and her husband Cornelis Johannes van Houten Cornelis Johannes van Houten (1920 &ndash August 24 2002) was a Dutch Astronomer, sometimes referred to as Kees van Houten. Career Special airborne services in Europe and Far East 1944-1948 Events 622 - Prophet Muhammad completes his hegira from Mecca to Medina. Year 1960 ( MCMLX) was a Leap year starting on Friday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar.

Ruben H. Fleet Museum and the Liberty Science Center also has an IMAX show called Roving Mars that documents the journey of both Spirit and Opportunity, using both CG and actual imagery. Liberty Science Center is an Interactive Science museum and learning center located in Liberty State Park in Jersey City New Jersey.

See also

• Exploration of Mars
• Space exploration
• Unmanned space missions
• Autonomous robot
• Opportunity rover

References

External links

JPL, MSSS, and NASA links

• JPL's Mars Exploration Rover Mission home page
• (obsolete JPL Mars Exploration Rover home page)
• Spirit Mission Profile by NASA's Solar System Exploration
• Planetary Photojournal, NASA JPL's Planetary Photojournal for Spirit
• NASA TV Special Events Schedule for MER News Briefings at JPL
• Mission Status updates from NASA JPL
• Wikisource:NASA MER press briefings
• Finding Spirit: high resolution images of landing site (Mars Global Surveyor - Mars Orbiter Camera)

Other links

• SpaceFlightNow Status Page last updated May 2004
• Marsbase.net, a site that tracks time on Mars.
• MAESTRO - public version of rover simulation software (requires download, last update October 25, 2004)
• Cornell's rover site: Athena last update 2006
• Finding Spirit: interactive Mars atlas based on Viking images: you can zoom in/out and pan images, to find your preferred site. "Spirit" approximate position is 14.82°S (= -14.82°N) , 184.85°W (= 5.15°E) (not working as of 2008-06-04)
• Google map with Spirit landing site marked
• (AXCH) 2004 Mars Exploration Rovers Highlights - News, status, technical info, history, and more. 2008 ( MMVIII) is the current year in accordance with the Gregorian calendar, a Leap year that started on Tuesday of the Common Events 781 BC - The first historic Solar eclipse is recorded in China.
• New Scientist on Spirit Dust Devils, 15 March 2005
• New Scientist on Spirit Wheel Status, 03 April 2006
• Unmanned Spaceflight.com discussion on Spirit as of 2008-06-04 last updated 2008-06-04
• "Mars Rover Beginning To Hate Mars", satire from The Onion, October 24, 2006
• Full-page, High-res spherical panorama of Spirit in the Columbia Hills, i/ota internet services, Nov 23 to Dec. 2008 ( MMVIII) is the current year in accordance with the Gregorian calendar, a Leap year that started on Tuesday of the Common Events 781 BC - The first historic Solar eclipse is recorded in China. 2008 ( MMVIII) is the current year in accordance with the Gregorian calendar, a Leap year that started on Tuesday of the Common Events 781 BC - The first historic Solar eclipse is recorded in China. For the vegetable see Onion. The Onion is an American " fake news " organization 5, 2005 (long download, uses Java)
• Full-page, High-res spherical panorama of Spirit at the summit of Husband Hill, i/ota internet services, Nov 23 to Dec. Java (Jawa is an Island of Indonesia and the site of its Capital city Jakarta. 5, 2005 (long download, uses Java)

Java (Jawa is an Island of Indonesia and the site of its Capital city Jakarta.

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