NASA rover drops neatly onto Mars

PASADENA, Calif. - A NASA rover plunged through the atmosphere of Mars and touched down on the Red Planet on Saturday night, beginning its mission to roam the Red Planet's rocky surface in search of evidence Mars was once suitable for life.

A cheer went up at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory after signals showed the spacecraft had successfully bounced down on the planet.

The rover signaled Earth after landing.

The Spirit rover is the first of two identical six-wheeled robots that will roam the planet's rocky surface if all goes as planned.

The gravity of Mars had already begun to tug on the spacecraft earlier Saturday from a distance of 59,000 miles, project manager Pete Theisinger said.

Spirit all along appeared on track to make the "bull's-eye" landing within a cigar-shaped ellipse inside Gusev Crater, a Connecticut-sized indentation just south of the Martian equator, navigation team chief Louis D'Amario said.

"This is essentially perfect navigation. We couldn't have possibly hoped to do better than this," D'Amario said.

Previously, one in three attempts to land spacecraft on Mars have failed. The latest apparent failure was the British Beagle 2 lander, which has not been heard from since it was to have set down on Mars on Christmas.

"It's an incredibly difficult place to land. Some have called it the "death planet' for good reason," said Ed Weiler, NASA's associate administrator for space science.

NASA's last attempt at landing on Mars, in 1999, failed when a software glitch sent the Polar Lander crashing to the ground. Since then, the space agency has increased oversight of its missions.

"We have done everything we know to do to ensure these missions will be a success," said Charles Elachi, director of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

The $820-million NASA project also includes a twin rover, Opportunity, which is expected to arrive on Mars on Jan. 24.

The camera- and instrument-laden rovers were designed to spend 90 days analyzing Martian rocks and soil for clues that could reveal whether the Red Planet was ever a warmer, wetter place capable of sustaining life.

The rovers were built to look for evidence that liquid water - a necessary ingredient for life - once persisted on the surface of the planet. A direct search for life on Mars is at least a decade away, NASA scientists said.

Together, the twin robots were launched in the most intensive scientific assault on another planetary body since the Apollo missions to the moon, said Orlando Figueroa, director of NASA's Mars exploration program.

NASA launched Spirit and its twin in hopes they would become the fourth and fifth U.S. spacecraft to survive landing on Mars. Twenty other spacecraft from various nations have failed.

Scientists are taking advantage of the closest approach Mars has made to Earth in 60,000 years. NASA intends to send spacecraft to Mars at regular 26-month intervals, or each time the Earth laps the Red Planet as they both circle the sun.

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