Rovers in overtime.Two field geologists working on the Red Planet just got a 5-month extension on their contract. On April 8, NASA NASA: see National Aeronautics and Space Administration. NASA in full National Aeronautics and Space Administration Independent U.S. announced it was going to extend through September the life of its twin Mars rovers A Mars rover is an unmanned rover used for exploration of the planet Mars. They are deployed because it has so far been too costly and difficult to achieve a manned mission to Mars, and because probes and satellites are too limited (due to their immobility or their distance from , which were designed to operate for 90 Mars days, which are 40 minutes longer than Earth days. Spirit, which landed in the planet's Gusev crater
For other uses of "Gusev", see Gusev (disambiguation). Gusev Crater is a crater on the planet Mars and is located at 175.4°E 14.6°S. on Jan. 3, exceeded the 90-day benchmark on April 5. Opportunity, which arrived 3 weeks later on the other side of the planet in a plain called Meridiani Planum Meridiani Planum is a plain located 2 degrees south of Mars' equator (centered at ), in the westernmost portion of Terra Meridiani. It hosts a rare occurrence of gray crystalline hematite. , went beyond its 90-day primary mission on April 26. Both rovers have found evidence of liquid water in Mars' past (SN: 3/27/04, p. 195). "Even though the extended mission is approved to September and the rovers could last even longer, they might also stop in their tracks next week or next month" cautions Firouz Naderi, who is mission manager for the rovers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory “JPL” redirects here. For other uses, see JPL (disambiguation). Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is a NASA research center located in the cities of Pasadena and La Cañada Flintridge, near Los Angeles, California, USA. in Pasadena, Calif. The cost of the mission extension is $15 million.--R.C. |
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