discoverynews:

Wow. 9 years ago today, Mars rover Spirit bounced across the Martian landscape, eventually coming to a rolling stop inside Gusev Crater. Sadly, in 2010 the highly successful six-wheeled robot became stuck in a sand trap and stopped transmitting.
Spirit&rsquo;s sister rover, Opportunity, lives on and still returns incredible science, a feat that mission scientists will continue for some time. &ldquo;Every day is a gift at this point,&rdquo; said rover mission principal investigator Steve Squyres, of Cornell University, said last month at the annual fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re just going to push the rover, and push ourselves, as hard as we can.&rdquo;