Approached by the new millennium and the deep longing that Mars had inspired in man, the cradle of fiction and many dreams, NASA designed the extra-planetary robots Mars Exploration Rover. The first model, dubbed 'Spirit', equipped with a mobile laboratory and a high-resolution camera, embarked on a 354 million mile cruise through space to explore and reveal the mystery of the Martian surface. ​

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In the early morning of January 4, 2004, Spirit successfully landed in Gusev Crater, ready to activate and photograph its particular odyssey. Anomalies in the use of its batteries, conditioned to withstand -105ºC at night on Mars, postponed the start of the mission until January 16, 2004, when it took on extraterrestrial soil.

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Suckled by the sunlight, while the winds polished his plates from the dust, he extended the autonomy of his mission by more than 2,000 suns, twenty times more than initially programmed. In April 2009, after disabling a wheel and dragging it across the Martian wasteland, it got stuck in a dune. In trying to break free, churning the sandy surface, it revealed hydrated sulfates just a million years ago. Thanks to this serendipitous find, Spirit occupies an honorary place in NASA's pantheon of missions.

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Spirit was presumed dead on May 25, 2011 due to lack of communication with the robot, but his first snapshots sent to Earth served to extend and baptize new limits. The mirage of Martian reality for the first time was clear, revealing the fine line that separates the dream from reality.

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M.C. Baro​

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