Rover Spirit Sets Record on Mars in Drive to Hills

NASA’s Spirit rover Wednesday completed its longest drive yet on Mars, traveling toward a cluster of hills that scientists hoped to reach by mid-June.

The 292-foot drive set a one-day distance record for the rover, but the cluster nicknamed the Columbia Hills was still more than a mile away.

A recent software upgrade has allowed the wheeled robot to travel three times the daily distance it could previously. Spirit has covered about eight-tenths of a mile since landing on the Red Planet in January.

“The vehicle is doing a good job of making progress,” mission manager Matt Wallace said at a news conference at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.

Scientists are eager for Spirit to reach the hills because they may contain evidence that Mars was once a wetter place. Such evidence eluded the rover in exploring its landing site inside Gusev Crater, where scientists believed a lake once may have filled the broad depression.

Halfway around Mars, Spirit’s twin, Opportunity, arrived Wednesday within 250 feet of the rim of a crater nicknamed Endurance.

Preliminary images suggest the far wall of the 430-foot-diameter crater contains layered rocks, which could offer further evidence of the salty sea thought to have covered the Meridiani Planum region.

Scientists were debating whether Opportunity could safely enter the crater.

“It’s going to be a tough call,” said Wallace, adding that some scientists had suggested the rover roll into the crater and spend its final days exploring it from within.