Mars: January 4, 2004, the Spirit rover - Corriere della Sera

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anniversaries SPACE

Mars: January 4, 2004, the Spirit rover
arrives on the Red Planet

After 21 days followed by twin Opportunity:
had to work for 90 days and on the other hand is still operating

Opportunity (NASA) Facebook and Twitter were not there yet and NASA did not send any tweet to make known the arrival one piece of Spirit on Mars. It was January 4, 2004 when the first of the two rovers American twins arrived on the Red Planet, January 25 followed the same year by Opportunity.

RECORD – The two rovers are still one of the greatest achievements of NASA: Mars had to work for 90 days, instead of Spirit and Opportunity lasted six years, although a little ‘bruised (a wheel no longer rotates and moves in reverse gear) still works today.

PATH – Spirit, landed in a crater, in the course of its working life has traveled 7.7 kilometers on the surface of Mars, Opportunity has traveled 38.7 km and has not yet completed its mission. One of the windfalls has been Martian wind, which periodically removes dust from the solar panels of the two rovers allowing the supply of energy required to operate the equipment. In August 2012, the two rovers were joined by another much larger: Curiosity.

Paul Virtuani