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| programme = Mars rovers (NASA) | previous_mission = ''Sojourner'' | next_mission = ''Curiosity'' }} ''Spirit'', also known as MER-A (Mars Exploration Rover – A) or MER-2, is a robotic rover on Mars, active from 2004 to 2010.〔 It was one of two rovers of NASA's ongoing Mars Exploration Rover Mission. It landed successfully on Mars at 04:35 Ground UTC on January 4, 2004, three weeks before its twin, ''Opportunity'' (MER-B), landed on the other side of the planet. Its name was chosen through a NASA-sponsored student essay competition. The rover became stuck in late 2009, and its last communication with Earth was sent on March 22, 2010. The rover completed its planned 90-sol mission. Aided by cleaning events that resulted in higher power from its solar panels, Spirit went on to function effectively over twenty times longer than NASA planners expected. Spirit also logged of driving instead of the planned , allowing more extensive geological analysis of Martian rocks and planetary surface features. Initial scientific results from the first phase of the mission (the 90-sol prime mission) were published in a special issue of the journal ''Science''. On May 1, 2009 (5 years, 3 months, 27 Earth days after landing; 21.6 times the planned mission duration), Spirit became stuck in soft soil. This was not the first of the mission's "embedding events" and for the following eight months NASA carefully analyzed the situation, running Earth-based theoretical and practical simulations, and finally programming the rover to make extrication drives in an attempt to free itself. These efforts continued until January 26, 2010 when NASA officials announced that the rover was likely irrecoverably obstructed by its location in soft soil, though it continued to perform scientific research from its current location. The rover continued in a stationary science platform role until communication with Spirit stopped on sol 2210 (March 22, 2010).〔(September 30 – October 5, 2010 Spirit Remains Silent at Troy ) NASA. 2010-10-05.〕〔A.J.S. Rayl (Mars Exploration Rovers Update ) ''Planetary Society'' November 30, 2010〕 JPL continued to attempt to regain contact until May 24, 2011, when NASA announced that efforts to communicate with the unresponsive rover had ended, calling the mission complete.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-156&cid=release_2011-156 )〕 A formal farewell took place at NASA headquarters after the 2011 Memorial Day holiday and was televised on NASA TV. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Exploration Rover project for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington. ==Objectives== The scientific objectives of the Mars Exploration Rover mission were to:〔(The scientific objectives of the Mars Exploration Rover )〕 * Search for and characterize a variety of rocks and soils that hold clues to past water activity. In particular, samples sought will include those that have minerals deposited by water-related processes such as precipitation, evaporation, sedimentary cementation or hydrothermal activity. * Determine the distribution and composition of minerals, rocks, and soils surrounding the landing sites. * Determine what geologic processes have shaped the local terrain and influenced the chemistry. Such processes could include water or wind erosion, sedimentation, hydrothermal mechanisms, volcanism, and cratering. * Perform calibration and validation of surface observations made by Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter instruments. This will help determine the accuracy and effectiveness of various instruments that survey Martian geology from orbit. * Search for iron-containing minerals, identify and quantify relative amounts of specific mineral types that contain water or were formed in water, such as iron-bearing carbonates. * Characterize the mineralogy and textures of rocks and soils and determine the processes that created them. * Search for geological clues to the environmental conditions that existed when liquid water was present. * Assess whether those environments were conducive to life. NASA sought evidence of life on Mars, beginning with the question of whether the Martian environment was ever suitable for life. Life forms known to science require water, so the history of water on Mars is a critical piece of knowledge. Although the Mars Exploration Rovers did not have the ability to detect life directly, they offered very important information on the habitability of the environment during the planet's history. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Spirit (rover)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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