Fact Sheet
Two Down, None to Go
The second of NASA's Mars Exploration Rovers, Opportunity, successfully landed on a dark Martian plain Saturday night, while engineers were working on ways to bring its twin back up to speed. Spirit, which beamed back this image of its landing platform before it stopped transmitting data to Earth, was commanded to go to sleep overnight. Engineers believe its problems were caused by a fault in its computer memory system. It could take several days or even weeks to get the rover running again. Opportunity should transmit its first pictures to Earth on Sunday, but won't begin its traverse of its landing area, known as Meridiani Planum, until early next month. [Credit: NASA/JPL]
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