Special Report: US twin Mars rovers land safely

    BEIJING, April 7 (Xinhuanet) -- NASA's twin Mars rovers, Opportunity and Spirit, have gotten another 18 months life beyond their designed three-month mission, according to a NASA statement on Tuesday.

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The US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) approved another extension of operation of the twin Mars rovers, Opportunity and Spirit, which have worked 11 months beyond their designed three-month mission.

"Both rovers are in amazingly good shape. We are going to work them hard to get as much benefit from them as we can, for as long as they are capable of producing worthwhile science results," said Jim Erickson, rover project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California.

    This was the third extension of the rovers' mission since they landed on the Mars in early 2004.

    Engineers knew all along that if nothing unexpected happened, they could last longer. But few expected them to be still roving after more than 14 months.

    The new extension, which covers the costs of running mission control and analyzing images and data, could mean the rovers would operate in three separate Earth-years (early 2004 into 2006) if they continue to operate.

    "The rovers have proven their value with major discoveries about ancient watery environments on Mars that might have harbored life," said Ghassem Asrar, deputy associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. "We are extending their mission through September 2006 to take advantage of having such capable resources still healthy and in excellent position to continue their adventures."

    The space agency did not announce the cost of the mission extension. The original mission cost $820 million and there have been two $15 million extensions.

NASA's Mars rover Spirit

    Troubleshooting continues for determining whether Opportunity's miniature thermal emission spectrometer is still usable despite tests indicating a problem last month. All other instruments on both rovers are still working normally.

    Scientists said Opportunity and Spirit are approaching targets that seemed well out of reach a year ago. Opportunity is currently a few football fields away from a region called "Etched Terrain".

    Spirit is climbing a rocky slope toward the summit of "Husband Hill" before heading down into the "Inner Basin" on the other side. It has made some longer one-day drives last week to allow extra time of observations for scientists. Enditem

    (Agencies)