The rover Spirit, completing work atop the ridgeline of a Martian mountain 50 million mi. from Earth, epitomizes the extraordinary exploration continuing on Mars by both Spirit and Opportunity. The human/robotic rover team is redefining the already formidable performance envelope of the $800-million vehicles, says Steve Squyres of Cornell University, the project's principal investigator. Both Spirit and Oppor-tunity are being pushed to more complex robotic science and driving operations against increasingly challenging terrain.
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