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Built for 90 Days, Mars Rovers Mark 5 Years

Spirit, Opportunity brave adversity, and they're not done yet

By Wesley Oliver, Newser Staff

Posted Jan 3, 2009 3:55 PM CST

(Newser) – NASA’s twin rovers Spirit and Opportunity are celebrating their fifth birthdays on Mars after surviving more than 20 times their expected lifespan, Space.com reports. The two probes were each built for a 90-day trek across the Red Planet but have survived computer glitches and blistering weather conditions. “These rovers are incredibly resilient,” said a NASA project manager.

The rovers’ yearly operating cost of $20 million is “an extraordinary return of investment in challenging budgetary times,” explained another official. The probes have traveled more than 13 miles, snapped 250,000 photographs, and beamed more than 36GB of data to Earth. And they're not done yet. “We keep setting the bar higher for what these rovers can do," said a scientist.

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NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit treks across the Red Planet's surface. (AP Photo/NASA)

NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity using its front hazard-identification camera to obtain this image at the end of a drive on the rover's surface. (AP Photo/NASA)

NASA officials are amazed that rovers Spirit and Opportunity have exceeded their expected lifespans by four years and nine months. (AP Photo)

In this image provided by NASA Tuesday Nov. 11, 2008 the deck of NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit is so dusty that the rover almost blends into the dusty background in this image. (AP Photo/NASA)

In this synthetic image, NASA's Spirit treks across the Martian surface. (AP Photo)

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Spirit and Opportunity may be considered most significant not for the science they accomplished, but for the first time we truly went exploring across the surface of Mars. - Steve Squyres, scientist

This has turned into humanity's first overland expedition on another planet. - Steve Squyres, scientist

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Built for 90 Days, Mars Rovers Mark 5 Years