The Mars Exploration Rover mission was a NASA project that sent two identical rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, to explore the surface of Mars, with the goal of finding evidence of past water. They were launched a month apart on Delta II rockets, and landed on opposite sides of the planet in January 2004, bouncing to a stop inside airbags. Both lasted far longer than the planned three months. Opportunity found hematite and other minerals that formed in the presence of water, and the two rovers provided strong evidence that Mars was once wetter and possibly habitable. Spirit became stuck in soft sand and fell silent in 2010, while Opportunity worked until a global dust storm in 2018 cut its power.
Before and after
- 2003Rise of Anonymous
- 20032003 European heat wave
- 2003Construction of Three Gorges Dam
- 2003Rose Revolution
- 2003Launch of Mars Exploration Rover
- 2003Creation of Puppy Linux
- 2003Creation of Scratch
- from 2003 to 2006Serbia and Montenegro
- 2003Launch of Myspace
More in Universe & space
- 16 February 1948Discovery of Miranda
- 5 September 1977Launch of Voyager 1
- 4 March 1979Discovery of Metis
- 24 April 1990Launch of Hubble Space Telescope
- 10 April 2019The first image of a black hole
- 25 December 2021Launch of James Webb Space Telescope
The era
This moment belongs to the Contemporary world (1945 CE to today), the world since 1945. You can also browse everything in the 21st century.