Mighty Mars Rovers

Cover of Book

                  The Mighty Mars Rovers

My book, The Mighty Mars Rovers by Elizabeth Rusch. Is an interesting book about the two Mars Rovers Spirit and Opportunity.

Steven Squyres was a college science teacher who always wanted to explore space. From a young age steven loved space he watched apollo missions put people on the moon.

Whilst Steven Squreys was a teacher he wrote numerous letters to NASA asking them to start a  Mars mission but he was always denied. Steven had told NASA that he could build a rover NASA still denied him. In 2000 steven got a call from NASA asking him to build two rovers so they could explore from opposite sides of the planet. Steven bagan building the rovers with 170 scientists and engineers at the Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL).

When the rovers were built they were named Spirit and Opportunity. Spirit would be launched first. The Rovers were fitted with cameras, drills, microscopes and a weather station. Spirit and Opportunity were identicle and had the same tools and were the same size. 

When both the Rovers had successfully made it to Mars they began working, The Rovers only had solar power and were expected to not live long and die during the Martian winter which is twice as long as Earths winter, both Rovers collected evidence and drilled into rocks and explored craters which scientists believed they would never make it out of or into. 

Simulation of Spirit on Mars

Soon came the Martian winter and the Rovers were running out of light to keep them moving. Spirit and Opportunity both had problems and both got stuck many times in the thick Martian sand , they had both discovered new things and found more evidence of life on Mars. 

After the long Martian winter Steve and the other scientists went back to JPL to turn the Rovers ion and see if they had made it through the Martian winter, both the Rovers made it through the winter and were left to take in the sun. 

Spirit and Opportunity were expected to live for three months and lived for more than six years, they explored 25 miles of the Martian surface, they survived three Martian winters and a sun-blocking dust storm. Each of the Rovers got out of deep craters and made it through thick Martian dust. Spirit continued on without one wheel. 

After this successful Mars mission NASA decided to build another Rover and name it Curiosity.