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PASADENA, California -- Hundreds of scientists and engineers are gathering here at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) to take part in the touch down of Spirit -- the first of two look-alike mobile landers.
The six-wheeled, golf-cart sized robot is to reach the surface of Mars on Saturday, January 3, at about 8:35 p.m., Pacific Standard Time.
The spacecraft’s trajectory is so precise that ground controllers opted not to perform a correction maneuver called TCM A5, and may forgo a final adjustment to Spirit’s targeting into Gusev Crater.
Spirit's twin, Opportunity, is also on course and will reach Mars three weeks later.
Akin to making a "hole in one" after Spirit has flown over millions of miles, ground control team members at JPL want to make a bulls-eye landing within Gusev Crater, a 90-mile (145-kilometer) wide feature likely formed three to four billion years ago as a result of an impacting asteroid.
Gusev is considered a dry and ancient lakebed, complete with a channel system that most probably carried liquid water, or water and ice, into the crater.
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