Winter Solstice Sees Mars Rovers in Good Shape

NASA's solar-powered rovers reached the darkest part of the Martian year on Tuesday, with the arrival of the winter solstice in the planet's southern hemisphere. The rovers are suffering from ageing hardware, but continue to reveal new things about Mars.

The lack of sunlight has sharply restricted the activities of Spirit, which is situated 15° south of the equator. Opportunity is also in the southern hemisphere, but only 1.5° from the equator, so experiences less seasonal variation in light. The rovers landed on opposite sides of Mars in January 2004 and were originally designed to operate for just 90 days.