Spirit and its sister ship, Opportunity, were sent to Mars to look for signs of water, which is commonly believed to be necessary for life to arise. Opportunity landed inside a crater lined with bedrock and was able to relatively quickly ascertain that a shallow, salty ocean had been present for some period of time in the past.
After an initial survey of its landing site in Gusev Crater, located halfway around the planet from where Opportunity touched down, Spirit was directed to a group of hills, named the Columbia Hills after the fallen shuttle crew. Despite a journey that spanned nearly two months, scientists already are saying the trip was well worth it.
"This is what we came to the Columbia Hills for," Golombek said at a press conference Friday. " We are in a target-rich environment that doesn't require a lot of driving at this point."
Spirit reached the outcrop driving backwards, which proved to be a more maneuverable position since problems developed with one of its front wheels. The rover teams plans to keep Spirit on a northerly path, then settle down for a series of studies on the rock slabs.
Opportunity meanwhile is slowly making its way down into Endurance Crater. Researchers are hot on the trail of unusually high readings of chlorine, which appears to be more prevalent as the layers of rock deepen. Scientists do not know how the chlorine got there.
Opportunity will continue down into the crater to see if the chlorine concentrations continue to rise. Scientists also plan to explore a craggy area nicknamed Razorback that is believed to have formed by fluids flowing through cracks in the rock.
"We're very keen to get down there and figure out what those minerals are," said rover team member Jack Farmer, with Arizona State University in Tempe.
