WORLD REPORT EDITION    COVER STORY

 

  January 16, 2004

 

Touchdown!

 

Scientists celebrate as a spirited new rover makes it to Mars

 

As NASA's spirit spacecraft hurtled toward Mars on January 3 at 12,000 miles per hour, scientists on Earth could do nothing but wait. Suddenly, late Saturday night, the ship slowed to 4,000 miles per hour, exactly according to plan. Air bags popped out to protect the spacecraft. Then, after seven months in space, the craft settled into its final approach. At NASA headquarters, the question on everyone's mind was simple: Would Spirit land safely?

 

Peter Theisinger knew that the last few minutes of the spacecraft's long trip would make or break the mission. "This was seven months of boredom followed by six minutes of sheer terror," said Theisinger, the mission's manager. Of the world's 33 missions to the Red Planet since 1960, 22 have crashed or failed before completing their research.

 

THE MOMENT OF TRUTH

 

After one last slowdown, Spirit bounced onto Mars. At first, the rover sent no signals. Then, 105 million miles away, a cheer rang out in Pasadena, California. "We see it!" shouted some of the scientists. Radio contact with Spirit showed that it had survived its bouncy landing. NASA scientists celebrated with high fives and tears of joy.

 

Soon after it landed, Spirit started sending information about its journey and pictures of Mars to Earth. On January 6, Spirit snapped a special three-dimensional (3-D) picture with one of its nine cameras. It was the clearest picture of Mars ever taken. Scientists used 3-D glasses to view all of the picture's details.

 

They hoped to send Spirit moving across the surface of the Red Planet after January 14. First, they must decide exactly where to steer it. To do that, they will study the new pictures. One thing that scientists are looking for is evidence of past or present life on Mars. Places that once held water could have supported life. The rover carries tools to test the rocks and soil for such evidence.

 

WHAT'S NEXT?

 

Spirit isn't the only NASA Mars mission in progress. A spacecraft called Opportunity is flying toward Mars, scheduled to land later this month on the opposite side of the planet. European scientists also sent a probe that was supposed to have landed on Mars on December 25. Sadly, they had not heard from Beagle 2, their first Mars probe, by last Friday.

 

Next week, President Bush is expected to announce new plans to send astronauts back to the Moon and possibly someday to Mars. But for now, all eyes are on the golf-cart-size Spirit. "When we landed on the Moon, people looked up and understood that we had managed to put a man on the Moon," said Charles Elachi, the director of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "Tonight, when you walk outside, you can see Mars and think, We landed a probe on that planet."

 

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