Comments on The Remarkable Spirit Rover
20 Jul 2011, 20:24 UTC
By John Callas
Below are remarks made by Mars Exploration Rover Project Manager John Callas at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Spirit Celebration on July 19, 2011.
Artist’s concept of NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
“We are here today to celebrate this great triumph of exploration, the incredible mission of this Mars rover. As bittersweet as the conclusion of Spirit’s time on Mars is for each of us, our job was to get to this day. To wear these rovers out, to leave behind no unutilized capability on the surface of Mars. For Spirit, we have done that.
What is truly remarkable is how much durability and capability Spirit had. These rovers were designed for only 90 days on the surface and one kilometer of driving distance. On her last day, Spirit had operated for 2210 Martian days, drove over 7730 meters and returned over 124 thousand images.
But it is not how long this rover lasted or how far she had driven, but how much exploration and scientific discovery she has accomplished. Spirit escaped the volcanic plains of Gusev Crater, mountaineer-ed up the Columbia Hills, survived three cold, dark Martian winters and two rover-killing dust storms, and ...
