page_title: Spirit (rover)
section_title: Objectives
hierarchical_section_title: Spirit (rover) / Objectives
caption_attribution_description: English: Amid billows of smoke and steam, the Delta II rocket with its Mars Exploration Rover (MER-A) payload lifts off the pad on time at 1:58 p.m. EDT from Launch Complex 17-A, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. MER-A, known as Spirit, is the first of two rovers being launched to Mars. When the two rovers arrive at the red planet in 2004, they will bounce to airbag-cushioned landings at sites offering a balance of favorable conditions for safe landings and interesting science. The rovers see sharper images, can explore farther and examine rocks better than anything that has ever landed on Mars. The designated site for the MER-A mission is Gusev Crater, which appears to have been a crater lake. The second rover, MER-B, is scheduled to launch June 25. Français&#160;: Lancement du rover Spirit vers Mars le 10 juin 2003 par une fusée Delta IIs. Deutsch: Start der Raumsonde Spirit mit einer Delta-II-Rakete am 10. Juni 2003
context_page_description: Spirit, also known as MER-A or MER-2, is a robotic rover on Mars, active from 2004 to 2010. It was one of two rovers of NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Mission. It landed successfully within the impact crater Gusev on Mars at 04:35 Ground UTC on January 4, 2004, three weeks before its twin, Opportunity, which landed on the other side of the planet. Its name was chosen through a NASA-sponsored student essay competition. The rover became stuck in a "sand trap" in late 2009 at an angle that hampered recharging of its batteries; its last communication with Earth was sent on March 22, 2010.
  The rover completed its planned 90-sol mission. Aided by cleaning events that resulted in more energy from its solar panels, Spirit went on to function effectively over twenty times longer than NASA planners expected. Spirit also logged 7.73 km of driving instead of the planned 600 m, allowing more extensive geological analysis of Martian rocks and planetary surface features. Initial scientific results from the first phase of the mission were published in a special issue of the journal Science.
  On May 1, 2009, Spirit became stuck in soft sand.
context_section_description: The scientific objectives of the Mars Exploration Rover mission were to:
  Search for and characterize a variety of rocks and soils that hold clues to past water activity. In particular, samples sought will include those that have minerals deposited by water-related processes such as precipitation, evaporation, sedimentary cementation or hydrothermal activity.
  Determine the distribution and composition of minerals, rocks, and soils surrounding the landing sites.
  Determine what geologic processes have shaped the local terrain and influenced the chemistry. Such processes could include water or wind erosion, sedimentation, hydrothermal mechanisms, volcanism, and cratering.
  Perform calibration and validation of surface observations made by Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter instruments. This will help determine the accuracy and effectiveness of various instruments that survey Martian geology from orbit.
  Search for iron-containing minerals, identify and quantify relative amounts of specific mineral types that contain water or were formed in water, such as iron-bearing carbonates.
  Characterize the mineralogy and textures of rocks and soils and determine the processes that created them.
  Search for geological clues to the environmental conditions that existed when liquid water was present.
  Assess whether those environments were conducive to life.
  NASA sought evidence of life on Mars, beginning with the question of whether the Martian environment was ever suitable for life. Life forms known to science require water, so the history of water on Mars is a critical piece of knowledge. Although the Mars Exploration Rovers did not have the ability to detect life directly, they offered very important information on the habitability of the environment during the planet's history.
caption: Delta II lifting off with MER-A on June 10, 2003
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