The robot rover Spirit made a successful landing in Gusev crater last night, the first craft to land without disaster on the red planet since 1997! It sent back its first confirmation within minutes - a quick tonal signal saying it was generally OK - and within hours had beamed back images from its new home... And this is just the beginning! Although it will take most of a week to fully "unpack" itself and move from it's landing platform to the Mars surface, once it gets on the ground, it will be able to cover 100 yards a day and its eight cameras will provide images and panoramas with resolutions so sharp they retain crisp detail when blown up to the size of a movie screen (according to NASA)... And if it finds something interesting, it's microscopes, spectrometers and drills can drill into rocks and collect samples that could unlock all sorts of geologic secrets...

So visit the Mars Exploration Rover Mission web site often to see what's new - every day will be an adventure!

(And don't forget Spirit's sister rover Opportunity that is set to land on the opposite side of Mars on January 24th!)