NASA on Sunday morning (Jan 1st) proudly and enthusiastically announced to the world that it's $400 million dollar project , the "SPIRIT" robotic Mars explorer has safely landed on the surface of the famed red planet early Sunday morning Mars time. The golf cart sized, solar powered rover will begin atmospheric and geological studies as soon as it completes a pre-programmed diagnostic checklist designed by it's engineers, to assure, and verify that it's in premium working order. The Spirit lander touched down inside it's assigned target area, the Gusev crater, a huge crater by Earth standards with it's nearly 100 mile diameter. Spirit was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida on June 10th, 2003 and it's sister rover "Opportunity" was launched on July 7th, 2003, and will hopefully, safely join Spirit in the exploration of Mars.

Historically the Red Planet has been a nightmare for both NASA and the Russian space agencies, the last succesful lander to safely touchdown on Mars was NASA's "Pathfinder" which landed in 1997 and provided the world with the first awe inspiring photos of the Martian landscape. The Spirit and Opportunity, far more advanced rovers in design and technology, will be able to continue Pathfinder's mission ten fold. The will be providing much more scientific data and photographs of Mars than ever before, and will hopefully answer the question that has hounded man since the discovery of Mars itself...was there, is there life on MARS? Stay tuned for more updates on this historic mission. Check out the Official NASA website, and check out some of the amazing MARS pics here!