I am Spirit — or Opportunity
NASA’s Mars Exploration Rovers were a pair of nearly identical mobile robots designed to study rocks and soil. Our mission type was a rover pair, and our central objective was to look for signs of past water on Mars. We landed in January 2004, on opposite sides of the planet, at locations selected because orbital observations suggested that liquid water may once have influenced them.
We were twin machines, but not duplicate journeys
Our shared design allowed scientists to compare evidence from two very different environments. Spirit explored Gusev Crater, while Opportunity explored Meridiani Planum. Each carried instruments to image the terrain and examine the composition and texture of rocks and soil.
A mission built for a short stay
Each rover was planned for a primary mission of about 90 Martian days, or sols. Both vastly exceeded that design lifetime. The mission became a long-running field investigation into Mars’ geological history.
Mission identity
Source: NASA’s mission overview. Narrative is presented in first person as a storytelling device; the rovers were robotic spacecraft. Mars Exploration Rovers · NASA/JPL-Caltech.