The Legacy of Spirit: 5 Major Contributions to Mars Science
20 years ago today on on June 10, 2003, NASA’s Spirit rover lifted off from Cape Canaveral and began its 7-month journey to Mars. It left Earth one month before its twin, Opportunity as part of the collective “Mars Exploration Rovers” mission. At that time, only one rover had successfully operated on the surface of Mars*—the microwave-sized Sojourner, which arrived in 1997 onboard the Pathfinder lander. This landing was just months after the arrival of NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft in orbit. Beyond these two missions however, the 1990s/early 2000s weren’t kind to humanity’s attempts to get to the Red Planet.
In 1993, NASA lost contact with the Mars Observer spacecraft just three days before it was set to enter Mars orbit. A failure of the propulsion system is the presumed culprit. Mars Observer was NASA’s first attempt to return to the Red Planet since the Viking missions in the 1970s, making this failure a bit of a gut punch. Russia attempted to send an ambitious mission in 1996 carrying two landers, and two “penetrators” that would plunge into the ground. Alas as was the case for many of Russia’s martian attempts, a failed launch caused Mars 96 to crash back down to Earth. Japan’s Nozomi mission launched in July 1998, but malfunctions in the fuel system left the spacecraft without enough fuel to slow down and enter Mars orbit…
