It took more than a month for NASA’s Spirit Mars rover to finish the drive to its destination, a crater called “Bonneville,” but mission planners are already looking toward more distant pastures, confident that their robust robot — and its twin, Opportunity — will last twice as long as originally expected.
Spirit was scheduled to travel the last few feet to the rim of Bonneville today, then look around with its panoramic camera for anything interesting enough to nuzzle its science instruments against.