Remember those cheesy 3-D movies where you wore those red & blue glasses? Well, break those bad boys out, and check out MARS in 3-D!!!!

All lights are green, all systems are go for NASA's Mars rover, "Spirit". The project's engineers and designers held a press conference to bring the world a progress report on the robotic science lab which touched down on the red planet at the beginning of the year. The Spirit team couldn't be any happier, after powering up the rover and running a series of intricate diagnostic tests, remotely from Earth, the vehicle has so far passed with flying colors...even more amazing is the first picture sent from the rover to Earth of the martian landscape at which it has landed.

The team has put together a crystal clear 360 degree panoramic view, of a digital snapshot taken by Spirit with it's twin lens cameras. From this, NASA is able to construct a computer image in 3d of any pictures the lander will take. Spirit is still fastened to it's landing platform and will soon be disconnected from it, free to roam it's surrounding martian terrain and begin conducting scientific experiments. The giant air filled sacks that encompassed the rover when landing on the planet did what it was designed to do, protect the rover and the lander...but when the landing capsule opened up and Spirit took it's first pictures, NASA engineers discovered that part of the collapsed air bags was obstructing the rampway in which the rover would decend onto the planets surface. Initial concern was shortlived, for the landing platform is designed with 3 rampways for just such an occurence! They will simply program the rover to turn around and decend down an alternate ramp so that it can initiate it's mission. For further information and a look at Spirit's amazing pictures of MARS, just go to the Official NASA Website.