Mars rover Spirit went down to Mars 9 years ago

It turns out yesterday was exactly nine years since that exciting moment when the Spirit rover landed on the surface of the Red Planet. It was originally planned that the rover will work for about three months. But the design was so successful that the rover worked until March 2010. By the way, three weeks after the Spirit, Opportunity's twin brother, a mars rover, has flown to Mars, which still works today.

Accordingly, in three weeks it is possible to celebrate one more anniversary, this time - the anniversary in honor of Opportunity. Both rovers did a lot to explore Mars, these devices literally flooded Earth scientists with information. In the nine years of operation, the twin rods traveled 43.2 kilometers. The main task of the apparatus was to study the rocks of Mars, and scientists hoped to find sedimentary rocks.
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Unfortunately, such rocks could not be found, and Spirit and Opportunity were able to detect only samples of volcanic origin.

Data from the surface of Mars is transmitted not directly, but through the artificial satellite of Mars, Mars Odyssey. This unit is in permanent orbit. The data exchange session is 16 minutes while Mars Odyssey is above the horizon.

In general, both rovers are an excellent example of a successful design, so reliable that it allowed the devices to work many times longer than originally planned. I would like to hope that Curiosity will show if not the best, then at least not the worst results. So far, everything is going quite well.