US Mars rover mission extended to September

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, April 09, 2004

US Mars rover mission extended to September

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US space agency NASA has approved an extended mission for the twin Mars rovers until mid-September, five months longer than the robot explorers' expected lifetime, officials at the agency said Thursday.

Spirit landed on Mars on Jan. 3, followed by the arrival of Opportunity on Jan. 24. One of the goals NASA set for the two rovers' prime mission is to operate for at least 90 Martian days after landing.

Early this week, Spirit met all the criteria for mission success after completing 90 Martian days and driving more than 600meters on the Martian surface. Opportunity is expected to achieve the same feats when it finishes 90th Martian days of operations onApril 26.

During their explorations, both rovers, whose joint mission costs 820 million US dollars, have found evidence that water once existed on the Red Planet.

"Given the rovers' tremendous success, the project submitted a proposal for extending the mission, and we have approved it," Orlando Figueroa, Mars Exploration Program director at NASA Headquarters, announced Thursday in a statement.

The mission extension provides 15 million dollars for operatingthe rovers through mid-September, Dr. Firouz Naderi, manager of Mars exploration at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where the rovers were built and are controlled, said at a press conference.

If the rovers are still healthy at that time, a further extension for operating one or both of them will be made to NASA, said Naderi.

However, he cautioned that "even though the extended mission isapproved to September, and the rovers could last even longer, theyalso might stop in their tracks next week or next month."

Source: Xinhua

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