8 Years on Mars: Downloadable Rover Poster

By Nancy Atkinson - January 24, 2012 at 4:10 PM UTC | Planetary Science
poster_mer8_med1.jpg

8 years ago today, January 24, the Opportunity rover landed on Mars. In what has become a tradition,

Stu Atkinson

and

Astro0

from

Unmanned Spaceflight

have teamed up to create a poster and poem combo to celebrate the occasion. While we fondly remember Spirit's now-finished journey, the poster features scenes from Opportunity's view of the 'Tribulation' hill and the hills of the crater rim beyond. And no, Oppy didn't actually spin out in double donuts on Mars to create the 'figure 8.'

"For a little effect, we've added the 'figure 8' in the form of the rovers own tracks on Mars," Astro0 said. "While they may have dreamed of doing it, I'm sure no rover driver would ever be tempted to leave such a mark on Mars for real. So it was only right and proper that I and Photoshop do it for them."

Click on the image above for a larger version or visit the

Astro0 website

for higher resolution versions that you can download to print out as a poster or use for your computer wallpaper. Stu's poem -- which both waxes wistful about the year of the MER rovers landing and prognosticates Mars' future -- is written out below:

Hard to believe the Homeworld has circled Sol eight times Since the first MER bounced and boinged to a historic halt on Mars, Spirit followed faithfully soon after by her sister, Opportunity, Just as Clark had followed Lewis two centuries before. Babies born bloodied and bawling on the day chase girls In busy schoolyards now; wide-eyed, Star Trek t-shirt wearing Interns who stumbled along the deer-stalked paths of JPL Now have interns of their own, and peer at screens painted Picasso-shades by read date beamed from the true Final Frontier…

In a thousand years, when Mars has oceans of retina-burning blue, And honeymooning couples crump across the snow-capped summit Of Olympus, the names 'Spirit' and 'Opportunity' will still be Spoken wistfully; and tourists from Titan, explorers from Europa And Hyperion's most respected historians will stand before The rovers, displayed in all their restored gory in the Great Museum of Mars and envy us, this generation which saw Gusev's Rugged Rocks and Meridiani's misty mountains for the first time, In 2004, the year Earth finally conquered Mars.

By Stu Atkinson

To see maps of where the rovers are now, see the

Mars Rover website.

See more images and musings on space at the

Astro0 website

, and follow along Oppy's journey at the Stu's

Road to Endeavour site

. For more skillfully mastered images from the MER mission and more, visit

Unmanned Spaceflight

.

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com