ASU researchers knew there was too much on the line for Spirit to fail. The Mars rover was roughly 300 million miles away from home and on its way to the Red Planet Jan. 3 while researchers waited and hoped for its safe arrival.
But shortly after 9:30 p.m., tensions eased and history was made; ASU successfully helped land another rover on Mars in near-perfect condition.
"We were all initially very skeptical about Spirit surviving because so many things could have gone wrong," said Scott Nowicki, a graduate research associate at the ASU Mars Space Flight Facility.
Spirit's landing signaled the first success of what could be crucial to answering the many mysteries of Mars. A successful mission also could help advance ASU's future involvement in Mars research, Nowicki said.
For the current $820-million mission, ASU employs more Mars scientists than any other university in the nation, said Laurie Leshin, director of the ASU Center for Meteorite Studies.
Among Spirit's purposes is to determine whether traces of a substance called carbonate in Mars' soil confirm scientists' theories that water once existed there. It also could indirectly indicate that life existed on Mars.
Above all, the scientists will study Mars' land composition and climate in relation to Earth, Leshin said.
On Jan. 15, Spirit made its first move and ASU researchers began analyzing rock and soil samples in the nearby region named Gusev Crater.
Nowicki said results of the analysis might come in at any time during and after Spirit's 90-day mission, but no results are currently available.
Possible obstacles to the mission include equipment failures and dust collecting on Spirit's solar panels, which are its main source for collecting power.
But Nowicki said he is confident the rover will last through the mission.
"It wouldn't be a complete success to have our mission cut short, but the way things look right now, there's a good chance it [Spirit] will last the entire time," Nowicki said.
ASU geology professor Phillip Christensen leads the mission from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. With the help of students and faculty, he has developed several instruments used for geological testing on Mars, such as the Temperature Emission Spectrometer, a device used to determine the makeup of soil.
Nowicki and approximately 60 other researchers at the ASU research facility receive data from the laboratory in Pasadena, which they analyze in fine detail.
"They don't really have a lot of time to do an analysis of the data," Nowicki said. "That's where ASU comes in."
The golf-cart-sized rover is among the first landers to stray nearly one kilometer away from its landing area, Leshin said. By comparison, 1997's rover, Pathfinder, remained near the landing spot.
The second lander, Opportunity, is expected to reach Mars Saturday. This and the degree of progress Spirit makes in its mission will ultimately determine the future of further Mars research at ASU, Nowicki said.
Reach the reporter at milos.podmanik@asu.edu.
