Miami Herald: Oh mighty Spirit, you soared over a mountain as tall as the Statue of Liberty and

Opinion: February 9, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

Miami Herald: Oh mighty Spirit, you soared over a mountain as tall as the Statue of Liberty and outlived your predicted demise by five years and nine months. You sent reams of useful data and illuminating images back to us Earthlings while you chugged sturdily through plains and plateaus, enduring the harshest of winters and cruelest of summers on Mars.

But now, you’re stuck in a sand pit. A lowly outcome for a plucky contraption that looks a bit like the loveable waste-collecting robot WALL-E. While your brother rover Opportunity continues sallying forth, you will remain mired, still relaying back intriguing information on the mysterious Red Planet.

Great achievements

Your handlers at NASA have striven mightily to free you, but they tossed in the towel in January. But NASA’s got nothing to be ashamed of in this space exploration endeavor. The president’s NASA budget proposal may deal Florida a blow — a topic to discuss another today. Today is your day, Spirit. You and Opportunity are two of the agency’s great achievements.

Thanks to you we now know that water once flowed on the Martian surface. By drilling into rocks and peeking into craters the two of you have given us a clearer picture of what our extraterrestrial neighbor is like.

We salute you, Spirit, and your brother, Opportunity. Your intrepid exploration and amazing endurance are tributes to the ingenuity of your creators and the faith of the taxpayers.