PASADENA, Calif. - A year after the first of NASA's twin rovers landed on Mars, scientists on Monday celebrated the robotic explorers that were supposed to last only about three months but are still roaming a planet with a reputation for swallowing spacecraft.
Officials at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory recalled the stress leading up to the rover Spirit's landing on Jan. 3, 2004, followed three weeks later by the rover Opportunity, and the mission's subsequent historic discoveries of rocks altered by ancient water activity that suggest Mars once could have been hospitable to life.
"I never, ever would have imagined the opportunity to be literally standing here a year later and say yet again, we're back and we're still on Mars," NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe told mission staff filling a JPL auditorium.
O'Keefe called the rovers "extraordinary pieces of machinery" and said they had made profound discoveries, especially Opportunity's finding that Mars' Meridiani Planum region once held large amounts of surface water.
"What it tells us is that the climate, the atmosphere of our closest neighbor was once dramatically different and perhaps conducive to life," he said. "Understanding why that changed may well provide a whole new perspective of our own place in the solar system, in this galaxy and indeed in the broader universe."
The two successful landings in less than a month and the rovers' defiance of the fiercely cold and dusty martian environment stand in stark contrast to high-profile failures of some of the space agency's previous Mars missions.
Despite pre-landing cautions that the solar-powered rovers might not be able to last the planned 92 martian days, the original $820 million mission has endured so long that it has received two $15 million extensions and officials said it is likely funding will continue until the rovers give out.
Spirit has traveled 2.47 miles to date and Opportunity has covered 1.27 miles. Together, the six-wheel rovers have transmitted to Earth 62,000 images and 86 gigabits of scientific data, said Jim Erickson, the Mars Exploration Rovers program manager at JPL.
During a press conference, mission officials credited the rovers' astonishing success to teamwork, the availability of resources, an ethic of "test, test, test," and to "the miracle on Mars."
Cornell University astronomer Steve Squyres, the mission's principal investigator, said in an interview that there is an effort to find out specifically why things have gone so well.
"It's just as important to learn from your successes as it is to learn from your failures. This team did something right and we've got to learn what it was," he said.
Squyres said he believes the key was never being starved for funds, test facilities or people.
"We've never, ever had to cut corners," he said. "If you look at some of the past failures in the Mars program and you asked the people involved in those programs if they've had a similar experience to what we had, I think they probably would give you a negative answer."
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