Spacegeeks

An anniversary worth noting. On January 4, 2004, I posted this:

Son of Geek
"Houston, Gusev Base here. The Spirit has landed."

And now, as the BBC reminds us,

It is a year since the first of two robot rovers touched down on Mars.

The US space agency's (Nasa) Spirit vehicle led the way when it landed on 3 January 2004, followed three weeks later by the Opportunity robot.

Both rovers have discovered clear evidence that Mars was a wet planet earlier in its history and may have had to conditions to produce life. That also means that if there is still subterranean water, which later probes will look for, there could still be life there. Many if not most scientists think that's unlikely - but until Spirit and Opportunity, many argued against the possibility of Mars having water in the past.

Both rovers have survived the Martian winter and with local conditions improving are expected to continue working for some time yet. Let it be remembered that their original missions were for 90 days.