Spirit finally starts roving on Mars

THE Spirit rover successfully rolled onto Mars early yesterday, placing its six wheels on solid Martian ground for the first time since the robot bounced down on the red planet nearly two weeks ago.

Engineers and scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory cheered loudly after receiving confirmation at 5am that the manoeuvre was a success.

“Mars now is our sandbox, and we are ready to play and learn,” said JPL director Charles Elachi.