Extended Missions
The primary mission lasts seven Martian days, or “sols,” for the rover, and 30 Martian days, or “sols,” for the lander. The rover could carry out an extended mission beyond that period, depending on how long its power sources and electronics last; engineers expect that the most probable reason for it to stop functioning is hot-cold cycling of its onboard electronics. For the lander an extended mission lasting up to one year after landing is possible.
Lander activities in the extended mission would include continued use of the lander camera to obtain images of the terrain and atmosphere, collection of key engineering telemetry and continued collection of meteorology data.
Sojourner's extended mission activities would include repeating soil mechanics experi-ments on various soils; additional spectrometer measurements of both rocks and soil; obtaining images of selected areas with the rover camera, including close-ups of any damage to the lander; obtaining images of the lander's landing and tumbling path; and traveling longer distances, with the possibility of going over the horizon.
