JPL and the Space Age: Landing on Mars — Six Minutes of Terror (NASA Documentary) — In the summer of 2003 two |
The aeroshell protects the rover from fiery temperatures as it enters the Martian atmosphere in January, 2004. Credit: NASAat a time when the Red Planet and Mars were the nearest they had been to each other in 60,000 years. The rovers had been built at breakneck speed by’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. But now there were new pressures. There were other nations flying missions to Mars.
NASA’s Opportunity was one of two Mars Exploration Rovers, along with its twin, Spirit. It was launched in July 2003 and landed on Mars in January 2004 for what was expected to be a 90-day mission. But the robust rover far outlived its planned lifetime, exploring the Martian surface and sending back invaluable data for 14 years until contact was lost in 2018.
NASA’s Spirit, the twin rover to Opportunity, was also launched in 2003 and landed on Mars three weeks prior to Opportunity. It was operational for six years, from 2004 until 2010, and made significant contributions to our understanding of the Red Planet. Spirit’s landing site was in Gusev Crater, believed to have once held a lake.
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