Mars Exploration

The United States Mars exploration rover Spirit (image) successfully landed on Mars today. It has already sent back a panorama and an overhead image.

Opportunity, the twin rover of Spirit, is expected to reach Mars 3 weeks later.

It has been good time for NASA recently. Its Stardust program made a successful catch of the "tail" particles of the comet Wild 2 (pronounced as "Vilt-2"). It seems that the misery associated with the explosion of Columbia space shuttle has finally left NASA alone.

The Europeans are not that lucky. The British-built Beagle 2 was scheduled to land on Mars on 25 December 2003, but contact has not been made with it.

Some relevant links:

• Mars Exploration Rovers Flash and HTMLsites


• Download Maestro, the program which operates the rovers


• Stardust Mission News: 2 January 2004