Celebrate the Opportunity to explore Mars

Our sister planet Mars has always held a special place in the human heart and imagination. Most of our alien fiction alien attacks have originated from Mars and it's inhabitants have fondly been labelled Martians. It was a long held theory that there was life on Mars and the discovery of the so called river beds, enhanced the theory. This has since been disproved but the planet still holds a dear place in the heart of Astronomy and space exploration.

Despite many failed attempts by both the then USSR and the USA, the American Mariner 4 passed Mars on 14 July 1965, sending back the first close up photos of the Red planet. The Soviet's Mars 2 and 3 and the USA's Mariner 9 were the first to send back detailed photos, leading to the strong belief that water once flowed on Mars (and therefor life could have once flourished).
The Russian Mars 2 and 3 each carried a lander, however despite being the first landers on Mars, were unable to send any decent data back to earth due to technical problems. The American Viking missions, which consisted of two landers and two satellite,s proved successful and send back invaluable data.

I am not going to dwell on other earlier missions to Mars so we will fast forward to January 2004 when the Rovers Opportunity and Spirit landed on Mars safely within 21 days of one another. The Little robot rovers were supposed to operate for around 92 Earth days (90 Martian days). As of 26th January 2012 Opportunity celebrated it's 2 805th operating day on Mars. Sadly, it's sibling Spirit became embedded in the Martian sand after travelling only 7.7 km in May 2011. Many attempts were made to free Spirit but they failed and then it's communications died.
In contrast, Opportunity has traveled 334 km and no end is in sight. Time has taken a toll though- one of the 6 wheels does not work anymore and as such, the rover travels backwards. Furthermore, one of the robotic arms is also showing signs of wear. Various instruments are aging as well, and it may be a matter of time before the little robot also ceases to work.

The rover is the size of a gold cart and pretty maneuverable. In it's time it has fully explored various craters, from the rim to the floor, send back invaluable data from air and earth samples as well as taken photographs that NASA describe as 'breathtaking'. The achievements and discoveries made by these remarkable little explorers is enough for another entry and as such, I will not go into detail now.

This entry is to celebrate a man made project that has exceeded all expectation and still is. This must rank as one of NASA's outstanding achievements.

The next rover heading to Mars, named Curiosity (Pic below), is the size of an SUV, laden with the latest in human technology. Should it land safely on Martian soil, we can only hope it follows the spirit of Opportunity and exceeds it's mission specs as well as it's expected life.