Spirit Condition Upgraded as Twin Rover Nears Mars
Hours before NASA's Opportunity rover will reach Mars, engineers have found a way to communicate reliably with its twin, Spirit, and to get Spirit's computer out of a cycle of rebooting many times a day. Spirit's landing site at Gusev Crater and Opportunity's landing site at Meridiani Planum can be seen in the image of Mars above. (Jan. 24, 4 pm PST)
NASA's second Mars Exploration Rover, called Opportunity, is scheduled to land at Meridiani Planumon, two degrees south of Mars' equator, in late January 2004. According to NASA, the area is rich with deposits of an iron oxide mineral (gray hematite), which usually is produced around water.