Spirit (rover) Spirit (rover) 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), which 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
Mission: Earth, Voyage to the Home Planet and Jones later produced another collaborative work, "Scholastic Encyclopedia of the United States at War", which was published in 1998. Jones wrote another book about his experiences in space, "Sky Walking: An Astronaut's Memoir", which was published in 2006. In "Mission: Earth, Voyage to the Home Planet", astronaut Thomas David Jones recounts his experiences studying the Earth during his first mission with the United States space agency NASA. Jones' space mission lasted eleven days. Jones was a member of the crew of the Space Shuttle "Endeavour", which left Earth in April 1994. The mission was intended to provide the Space