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Spirit, MER-A (Mars Exploration Rover - A), is a robotic rover on Mars, active from 2004 to 2010. It was one of two rovers of NASA's ongoing Mars Exploration Rover Mission. It landed successfully on Mars at 04:35 Ground UTC on January 4, 2004, three weeks before its twin, Opportunity (MER-B), landed on the other side of the planet. Its name was chosen through a NASA-sponsored student essay competition. The rover became stuck in late 2009, and its last communication with Earth was sent on March 22, 2010.

The rover completed its planned 90-sol mission. Aided by cleaning events that resulted in higher power from its solar panels, Spirit went on to function effectively over twenty times longer than NASA planners expected. Spirit also logged 7.73 km (4.8 mi) of driving instead of the planned 600 m (0.4 mi), allowing more extensive geological analysis of Martian rocks and planetary surface features. Initial scientific results from the first phase of the mission (the 90-sol prime mission) were published in a special issue of the journal Science.

On May 1, 2009 (5 years, 3 months, 27 Earth days after landing; 21.6 times the planned mission duration), Spirit became stuck in soft soil. This was not the first of the mission's "embedding events" and for the following eight months NASA carefully analyzed the situation, running Earth-based theoretical and practical simulations, and finally programming the rover to make extrication drives in an attempt to free itself. These efforts continued until January 26, 2010 when NASA officials announced that the rover was likely irrecoverably obstructed by its location in soft soil, though it continued to perform scientific research from its current location.

The rover continued in a stationary science platform role until communication with Spirit stopped on sol 2210 (March 22, 2010). JPL continued to attempt to regain contact until May 24, 2011, when NASA announced that efforts to communicate with the unresponsive rover had ended calling the mission complete. A formal farewell took place at NASA headquarters after the 2011 Memorial Day holiday and was televised on NASA TV.

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Exploration Rover project for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington. (Wiki)

4th January 2004 - Spirit touches down on the surface of Mars in the Gusev crater on a mission to find and analyse water on the planet. Its mission expected to last 90 sols, the Martian eqivalent odf a solar day, or 24 hours, 39 minutes and 35.244 seconds.

21 January 2004 - Spirit suffers its first setback and abruptly ceases communication with mission control. Engineers discover the vehicle is wasting its battery power and could be overheating. Problem is potentially solved by February 6.

6 February 2004 - Spirit grinds up a rock to look for water.

5 March 2004 - NASA announces that spirit has found hints of water history in a rock called "Humphrey".

9 March 2005 - Spirit's solar panels suddenly become far more efficient Nasa speculates that the vehicle's solar panels have been "swept clean" by dust devils blowing across the planet's surface. Power levels have been dramatically improved and the daily scientific experiments have been increased.

June 2007 - Spirit has been put on its lowest power setting to survive a series of dust storms that block out the sun.

December 2007 - Spirit's back wheel scrapes off the top layer of Martian soil, exposing a patch of ground that scientists believe would have been a rich environment for microbiological. It is similsr to areas on Earth where hot water or steam comes into contact with volcanic rocks.

1 May 2009 - Five years and three months after landing on Mars, Spirit becomes stuck in the soft soil. It has not been the first time the the rover has become stuck and Nasa has spent eight months trying to re-program the vehicle to free itself.

26 January 2010 - Nasa officials admit the rover is stuck, but will continue to carry out experiments.

22 March 2010 - Communication with Spirit is cut off.

29 March 2011 - Still no word from Spirit. "That Spirit has not called home suggests that something is more seriously wrong than just a power issue". Said John Callas, Programme Manager at the NASA JPL Laboratory.

25 May 2011 - Nasa admits defeat. Attempts to regain contact are abandoned.

SPIRIT UPDATE: Spirit Remains Silent at Troy - sols 2621-2627, May 18-24, 2011:

More than 1,300 commands were radiated to Spirit as part of the recovery effort in an attempt to elicit a response from the rover. No communication has been received from Spirit since Sol 2210 (March 22, 2010). The project concluded the Spirit recovery efforts on May 25, 2011. The remaining, pre-sequenced ultra-high frequency (UHF) relay passes scheduled for Spirit on board the Odyssey orbiter will complete on June 8, 2011.

Total odometry is unchanged at 7,730.50 meters (4.80 miles).

Spirit Update Archive