Nasa rover Opportunity lands on Mars

Nasa’s Opportunity rover successfully landed on Mars today, arriving at the Red Planet exactly three weeks after its identical twin set down.

“We’re on Mars everybody,” mission scientist Wayne Lee declared as fellow members monitoring the landing at Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California burst into wild applause.

The six-wheeled rover landed at 5.05am Irish time in Meridiani Planum, Nasa said. The smooth, flat plain lies 6,600 miles and halfway around the planet from where its twin, Spirit, set down on January 3.

Together, the twin rovers make up a single mission to determine if Mars ever was a wetter world capable of sustaining life.

Since arriving, Spirit has developed serious problems, cutting off what had been a steady flow of pictures and other scientific data.