NASA's Amazing "Martian Rovers" Continue Extraordinary
Exploration
NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit successfully drove
off its lander platform and onto the soil of Mars early Thursday.
The robot's first picture looking back at the now-empty lander and
showing wheel tracks in the soil set off cheers from the robot's
flight team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena,
Calif.
"Spirit is now ready to start its mission of exploration and
discovery. We have six wheels in the dirt," said JPL Director Dr.
Charles Elachi.
Since Spirit landed inside Mars' Gusev Crater on Jan. 3 (PST and
EST; Jan. 4 Universal Time), JPL engineers have put it through a
careful sequence of unfolding, standing up, checking its
surroundings and other steps leading up to to