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Five years after the NASA rover Spirit landed on Mars, the six-wheeled robotic geologist and its twin Opportunity are still on the job. Expectations were far lower when Spirit made a bouncing landing in a cocoon of air bags on Jan. 3, 2004, followed 21 days later by Opportunity: The goal was to try to operate each solar-powered rover for at least three months.
美國航空航天局“勇氣號”探測器登陸火星已有五年，這個六輪的地質探測機器人還有他的好兄弟“機會號”仍在繼續工作。當2004年1月3日“勇氣號”在繭形的氣袋上跳躍著著陸，21天后“機會號”也尾隨而來，這遠比預期要好，因為原本只計劃讓這兩個太陽能漫游者執行3個月任務。
"That's an extraordinary return of investment in these challenging budgetary times," Ed Weiler, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, said in a December statement.
美國航天航空局科學使命執行官埃德·維勒爾在12月的聲明中說道：在如此富有挑戰性的財政預算年代里，這次投資的回報實在太豐厚了。
Combined, the rovers have made more than 13 miles of tracks on Mars' dusty surface and sent a quarter-million images back to Earth. Their instruments have uncovered evidence that Mars was once a far wetter and warmer place than the frigid, dusty world it is now.
綜合起來，探測器已經在火星滿是塵土的表面行駛了13英里，并向地球傳回25萬張圖片。機器人自帶的儀器給出證據，證明火星表面曾經非常濕潤，溫暖，不像現在那樣嚴寒，塵土飛揚。
Mission managers are pressing ahead with plans for more exploration even though NASA says either rover could fail without warning.
盡管美航局表示探測器可能會毫無征兆地失靈，但任務管理人員仍在推行更多探測計劃。
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