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Six Years Experience Explore Mars Posted: 05 Jan 2010 07:26 AM PST Six years ago, the twin robot explorer named Spirit and Opportunity's Aviation and Space Agency or NASA's U.S. land on Mars, aka the Red Planet. Spirit began his adventures in Gusev Crater on January 3, 2004, while his brother Opportunity on the other side of Mars, on the plains of Meridiani Planum, January 25, 2004, two weeks of the Spirit. Sunday (3/1/2010) is warning the 6-year mission that robot. Interesting to note, in 1 Mars year equals 687 Earth days, so the age of the mission was practically only 3.2 years of Mars. Now the robot has entered his seventh year on Mars, and endurance both robots "naughty" is to impress the supervisor of the Earth Spirit, although the wheel is now stuck in the sand of Mars and may no longer be moved. Initially the robot is expected to survive only on the surface of Mars for 90 days according to initial mission. But they operate far more than expectations of their makers. Opportunity is now even exceeds it odometer, which is 17.7 km, and has sent more than 132,000 images of Mars. "They really had crossed the line 'guarantee'," said Ray Arvidson of Washington University, St. Louis. Arvidson is deputy chairman of supervisory funding for Spirit and Opportunity. Observations of the two robots for six years has contributed to our understanding of the nature and evolution of the surface of Mars, especially in the proof that some part of Mars was once wet. However, the progress of this experiment did not always smooth, especially for the Spirit, which had experienced computer problems after landing, and last year nearly exhausted due to winter on Mars is a dark (solar-powered robot). Last challenge is when the spirit trapped in the sand, May 6, 2009, when moving from the highlands of Home Plate to the destination is 180 meters. The robot's wheels to fall through the thin crust and trapped in the sand beneath the crust. The technicians from then on was trying to outsmart the Wheel Spirit to be free. However, Spirit and all things negative because the wheels could fall blowing soil, indicating that the place was formerly may have hydrothermal holes. Meanwhile, Opportunity has discovered a third meteorite on the surface of Mars during travel 12 km to the crater of Endeavor, a width 22 km. No one knows, what else will find this a second robot in the year 2010. However, scientists are concentrating on liberating Spirit before the Martian winter coming.

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