Conclusion:

The prospects for making use of solar energy in new ways are excit­ing. The potential for solar energy extends to outerspace. For example, NASA launched two solar-powered rovers to Mars in June 2003. The “monster truck” rovers - code-named “Spirit” and “Opportunity” – reached the Red Planet in January 2004 in an $800 million mission. Both solar-powered rovers are equipped with an articulated robot arm, which carries a “rock hammer”, high-resolution cameras and instruments. Their objective is to find what happened to the water that once carved the martian surface.

For more information, go to:
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.html

“Spirit” landed on Mars on 3 January 2004. Mars completed one full orbit around the Sun on 21 November 2005. “Spirit” has been on Mars this whole period, known as a “martian year” (the equivalent of 687 Earth days).

In Western Australia, the potential of solar energy is in providing power supplies for remote areas. Solar power is also replacing some conventional gas and electricity supplies by heating fluids such as domestic hot water. However, economic constraints are expected to limit the development of new solar energy technology. Therefore major cities will still rely primarily on tradi­tional electricity generating sys­tems in the foreseeable future.

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