Mars Exploration Rover Mission
 First
colour photo from Mars
For more pictures visit the NASA mission site
Scientists at NASA are delighted with the successful
landing of the Spirit rover on Mars - although it will take
more than a week for the robot to actually hit the surface
of the red planet.
At the moment Spirit is still on its landing
platform - about 37 centimetres above the surface - and will
slowly move off it and on to Mars itself. A feat that scientists
estimate will take about nine days.
 Mission
planners are extremely happy with the position of the Spirit
and the fact that the navigational experts set it down in
the perfect landing spot after a seven-month journey from
Earth.
"My hat is off to the navigation team because
they did a fantastic job of getting us right where we wanted
to be," said Dr. Steve Squyres of Cornell University, who
is the science payload chief. "This is our new neighborhood,"
Squyres said.
"We hit the sweet spot. We wanted someplace
where the wind had cleared off the rocks for us.
 "We've
landed in a place that's so thick with dust devil tracks that
a lot of the dust has been blown away."
The terrain surrounding Spirit is different
from Martian sites examined by NASA's three previous successful
landers -- the two Vikings in 1976 and Mars Pathfinder in
1987.
"What we're seeing is a section of surface that
is remarkably devoid of big boulders, at least in our immediate
vicinity, and that's good news because big boulders are something
we would have trouble driving over," Squyres said.
 The
mission main project is to spend the next three months exploring
for clues in rocks and soil about whether the past environment
at this part of Mars was ever watery and suitable to sustain
life.
Spirit's twin Mars Exploration Rover, Opportunity,
will reach its landing site on the opposite side of the planet
on January 25.
Pictures Credit: NASA
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