JPL Tour

Arranged by Wu Liang's friend Roger Carlson, we had a rare chance to visit NASA JPL. The most precious moment was to enter the Space Flight Operations Facility and viewed all operating consoles and big screens for all space activities.

Do you know that one Martian year equals to 23 months Earth year? Mars is farther from the Sun compared with Earth, so it takes Mars longer to complete one orbit and its year is longer than an Earth year. A Mars year is 687 Earth days long -- almost two Earth years. Like Earth, Mars rotates on its axis, but more slowly, so a Mars day is slightly longer than an Earth day. The Mars day (sol) is 24 hours, 39-1/2 minutes long.

Opportunity and its twin, Spirit, landed on opposite sides of Mars in January 2004, each with a planned mission of 90 Martian days (sols). Spirit lasted more than six years, ceasing operation March 22, 2010, on Sol 2210. As of December 2012, Opportunity roved nearly 22 miles for more than 3100 sols, and continues to explore and communicate with Earth.

Curiosity landed on Mars August 6, 2012 (UTC) for a planned 23-month mission to investigate whether Mars ever had favorable environmental conditions (habitats) to support microbial life.