This image taken by the hazard avoidance camera on Spirit shows the rover's rear lander petal and, in the background, the Martian horizon (AFP)

CALIFORNIA, January 4 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - NASA's Spirit rover sent its first images of Mars to jubilant scientists here early Sunday, January 4, after surviving a jarring landing on the red planet, an achievement so stunning it left mission managers almost speechless.

The black and white photographs, showing part of the robot resting in front of a large boulder in the middle of a rock-strewn plain, were projected on screens in the mission control room at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Agence France-Presse (AFP) said.

Just prior to receiving the images, NASA announced that the robot was in "safe mode" after completing several post-landing tasks - deflating air cushions that buffered its landing, opening the cone that housed it and deploying solar panels to protect it from frigid Martian temperatures.

Scientists literally jumped for joy when they heard a signal relayed by the Mars Global Surveyor satellite indicating that Spirit had survived its landing on Mars.

The space probe plunged through the fiery Martian atmosphere for six minutes, then bounced along the planet's rocky surface, with an approximate landing time of 8:35 pm Saturday, January 3 (0435 GMT Sunday).

About 20 minutes later mission control erupted in cheers, hugs and tears when a signal from the craft indicated it was still functioning.

With that, NASA accomplished the most difficult part of its Martian adventure, landing the first of two twin robots on the red planet for the most ambitious scientific exploration of Earth's neighbor ever undertaken.

"We're on Mars. It's an absolutely incredible accomplishment," NASA administrator Sean O'Keefe said.

"We never get it right when we practice this, but this went to perfection," said MARS program chief engineer Rob Manning. "Everything happened right when we expected it to happen."

The landing procedure began at around 7:22 pm (322 GMT Sunday) when the probe successfully rotated its thermal shield forward to protect it from the heat of the Martian atmosphere.

Before taking the plunge, Spirit separated from the cruising stage rocket that carried it for seven months and over 300 million miles (500 million kilometers) from Earth.

Less than two minutes before landing, the engine opened its parachute and, 20 seconds later, the probe jettisoned the spent lead edge of its heat shield, exposing the rover's protective cone, encased in non-inflated air cushions.

Project members, in front of one of the first images from the Mars Rover 'Spirit' at NASA (AFP)

Six seconds before hitting the surface, the cushions inflated, and rockets on the upper shell of the shield fired to stabilize the engine. At about 15 meters (49 feet) from the surface, the tether to the parachute was cut. The robot then fell freely, bouncing a dozen times on the surface before coming to rest up to a kilometer away.

At a press conference afterwards mission managers seemed almost in disbelief that the landing had unfolded as envisioned. "I feel speechless tonight. It was six minutes from hell but we said the right prayer and we rose to heaven," Ed Weiler, NASA's associate administrator for space science, said of the atmospheric descent.

"It does not get better than this. I think we should all go and buy some lottery tickets."

This latest and most sophisticated effort to unlock the secrets of the red planet is beginning just days after the planned December 25 arrival of the ill-fated European robot Beagle 2, which has not been heard from since that date.

NASA had cautioned repeatedly about the difficulty of the mission and the risk of failure. Of 30 attempted Mars missions over the past 40 years, just 12 succeeded, Weiler said earlier this year.

A second NASA rover, Opportunity, is scheduled to land on Mars on January 25, on the opposite side of the planet.

The Mars mission, at a record cost of 820 million dollars, will involve some 250 NASA specialists and researchers who over three months will micro-manage the six-wheeled rovers, weighing 180 kilograms (400 pounds) each, roughly the size of a subcompact car.

Powered by solar energy, the robots will be able to move 40 meters (125 feet) each Martian day, more than during the entirety of NASA's 1997 Pathfinder mission, with its 10-kilogram (22-pound) mini-robot Sojourner.