2003-12-30 | MISSIONS
Destination: Gusev Crater

On January 3, Spirit, NASA’s 400-pound rover, is scheduled to land on what may be a dried-up lake bed on Mars. “There’s not much doubt: this site contained a body of liquid water, at least for some amount of time,” says Jim Garvin, NASA’s Lead Scientist for Mars Exploration. The site is Gusev Crater, a 90-mile wide hole in the ground that probably formed three to four billion years ago when an asteroid crashed just south of Mars’ equator. There’s a channel system that drains into it, which probably carried liquid water, or water and ice, into the crater.

NASA's Mars Exploration Rovers are quickly approaching Mars. Once there, the twin rovers will examine separate sites for geological information about the history of water on Mars. Because life as we know it requires water to survive, understanding the history of liquid water on Mars is vital for determining the potential for past or present life on the planet.

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