Mars

Space exploration has interested mankind forever. One of the more recent and famous missions launched is the Spirit and Opportunity mission on Mars. These two rovers were sent by NASA and have been on Mars's surface since January of 2004. They continue to perform operations today and send back information about the Red Planet back to Earth. But who is behind all the operations of Spirit and Opportunity?

Steven Squyres is known as the brainchild behind the two rovers. Squyres was heavily involved in the designing and engineering of the two rovers, and he is only forty-nine years old. He is the professor of astronomy at Cornell University and the main investigator for the Mars Exploration Team, which consists of 170 members. As head of this committee, he is the one in charge of most of the actions the Spirit and Opportunity take. This mission is considered the most complex mission NASA has run so far in its history. Since he is the one that mostly designed the rovers, there are many features they have to help gather knowledge of Mars.

The Spirit and Opportunity rovers have technological advances built into them that help them in a plethora of ways. For the rovers to land, the projectiles they were launched in would release a parachute that would slowly bring them down after they entered Mars's atmosphere. Subsequently, the projectile would break open for the rover itself to get out and start rolling. When mobile, the rovers have many tools they could use to gather information. One of these tools is the "RAT", or rock abrasion tool. This tool drills into rocks or soil and gathers samples from them. A similar tool uses infrared technology to show if the rocks contain minerals that have had been exposed to water. Another feature is the onboard camera; this camera is capable of taking a 360-degree, full color, panoramic image of the rovers' surroundings. Spirit and Opportunity are solar-powered; they would fall asleep when it is nighttime either of the rover's side of the planet, since they are on opposite sides. The rovers have a mass of almost 180 kilograms. The rovers can travel up to forty meters (about forty-four yards) in one Martian day, otherwise known as a sol. This is about the distance the Sojourner rover traveled its entire lifetime, and Spirit and Opportunity can travel that in one day! The projected lifespan of them is supposed to be ninety sols (to April of 2004), although the rovers have been working for almost twice their lifetimes, and they still continue to work to this very day! In general, all this equipment helps expand the so little knowledge of the Red Planet that humans have.

The Spirit rover landed on January 4, 2004; Opportunity landed twenty-one days later on January 25. Much has happened since then. One instance tells about a day in June of 2004 at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where the Mars Exploration Team led by Steven Squyres works. Opportunity was near the Endurance Crater, a twenty-meter deep crater near its landing site, Meridani Planum. The drop is about thirty centimeters on a twenty-five degree drop, but everyone wants the rover to go in. The rover fortunately makes it in. Afterwards, Opportunity drills a few holes with the RAT. The rovers have encountered problems also. Spirit had faced technical difficulties with its onboard computer. It had to reboot its 130 times in three days at one point. The regular memory, which could store information even in sleep, was not functioning, so Spirit would have to rely on random access memory. Information not transferred before shut down would have been lost. Also, since Mars is twenty light-minutes (the distance light travels in one minute) away from Earth, control by the use of a joystick or any interactive device is not possible. The rovers' commands are uploaded one at a time, and their actions are set for each day. All in all, Spirit and Opportunity are well equipped with new technology that will help the two overcome challenges.

Why did NASA send robots to Mars? Besides just one of the most popular reasons is to find past evidence of life on Mars. By this, we also try to find water, as this might show that life forms may have consumed it. Along the search, the rovers have found sulfate salts and hematite concretions, which are