Curiosity Self-Portrait at 'Big Sky' Drilling Site

A Mars rover is a

motor vehicle A motor vehicle, also known as motorized vehicle or automotive vehicle, is a self-propelled land vehicle, commonly wheeled, that does not operate on rails (such as trains or trams) and is used for the transportation of people or cargo. The ...

designed to travel on the surface of

Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Roman god of war. Mars is a terrestrial planet with a thin at ...

. Rovers have several advantages over stationary

landers Landers may refer to: People * Landers (surname), a list of people surnamed Landers (including fictional people) Places * Landers, California, United States * Landers Peaks, group of peaks in the northern portion of Alexander Island, Antarct ...

: they examine more territory, they can be directed to interesting features, they can place themselves in sunny positions to weather winter months, and they can advance the knowledge of how to perform very remote

robot A robot is a machine—especially one programmable by a computer—capable of carrying out a complex series of actions automatically. A robot can be guided by an external control device, or the control may be embedded within. Robots may be ...

ic vehicle control. They serve a different purpose than orbital spacecraft like '' Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter''. A more recent development is the Mars helicopter. , there have been six successful robotically operated Mars rovers; the first five, managed by the American

NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is a federally funded research and development center and NASA field center in the City of La Cañada Flintridge, California, United States. Founded in the 1930s by Caltech researchers, JPL is owned by NASA an ...

, were (by date of Mars landing): ''

Sojourner A sojourner is a person who resides temporarily in a place. Sojourner may also refer to: *Sojourner Truth (1797–1883), abolitionist and women's rights activist *Albert Sojourner (1872–1951), member of the Mississippi House of Representatives ...

'' (1997), '' Spirit'' (2004–2010), '' Opportunity'' (2004–2018), ''

Curiosity Curiosity (from Latin '' cūriōsitās'', from ''cūriōsus'' "careful, diligent, curious", akin to ''cura'' "care") is a quality related to inquisitive thinking such as exploration, investigation, and learning, evident by observation in human ...

'' (2012–), and '' Perseverance'' (2021–). The sixth, managed by the

China National Space Administration China National Space Administration (CNSA; ) is the government agency of the People's Republic of China that is responsible for civil space administration and international space cooperation, including organizing or leading foreign exchanges ...

, is '' Zhurong'' (2021–). On January 24, 2016,

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeedin ...

reported that then current studies on Mars by ''Opportunity'' and ''Curiosity'' would be searching for evidence of ancient life, including a

biosphere The biosphere (from Greek βίος ''bíos'' "life" and σφαῖρα ''sphaira'' "sphere"), also known as the ecosphere (from Greek οἶκος ''oîkos'' "environment" and σφαῖρα), is the worldwide sum of all ecosystems. It can also ...

based on

autotroph An autotroph or primary producer is an organism that produces complex organic compounds (such as carbohydrates, fats, and proteins) using carbon from simple substances such as carbon dioxide,Morris, J. et al. (2019). "Biology: How Life Wo ...

ic, chemotrophic or

chemolithoautotrophic A lithoautotroph is an organism which derives energy from reactions of reduced compounds of mineral (inorganic) origin. Two types of lithoautotrophs are distinguished by their energy source; photolithoautotrophs derive their energy from light while ...

microorganism A microorganism, or microbe,, ''mikros'', "small") and ''organism'' from the el, ὀργανισμός, ''organismós'', "organism"). It is usually written as a single word but is sometimes hyphenated (''micro-organism''), especially in old ...

s, as well as ancient water, including fluvio-lacustrine environments (

plain In geography, a plain is a flat expanse of land that generally does not change much in elevation, and is primarily treeless. Plains occur as lowlands along valleys or at the base of mountains, as coastal plains, and as plateaus or uplands ...

s related to ancient

river A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of ...

s or

lake A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much large ...

s) that may have been habitable. The search for evidence of habitability, taphonomy (related to

fossils A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...

), and organic carbon on Mars is now a primary NASA objective. The Soviet probes, Mars 2 and Mars 3, were physically tethered probes; ''Sojourner'' was dependent on the

Mars Pathfinder ''Mars Pathfinder'' (''MESUR Pathfinder'') is an American robotic spacecraft that landed a base station with a roving probe on Mars in 1997. It consisted of a lander, renamed the Carl Sagan Memorial Station, and a lightweight, wheeled robot ...

base station for communication with Earth; ''Opportunity'', ''Spirit'' and ''Curiosity'' were on their own. As of , ''Curiosity'' is still active, while ''Spirit'', ''Opportunity'', and ''Sojourner'' completed their missions before losing contact. On February 18, 2021, ''Perseverance'', the newest American Mars rover, successfully landed. On May 14, 2021, China's ''Zhurong'' became the first non-American rover to successfully operate on Mars.

Missions

Multiple rovers have been dispatched to Mars: Tianwen-1 Lander and Zhurong Rover in Southern Utopia Planitia (ESP 069665 2055-1)

Active

* ''

'' of the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission by NASA, was launched November 26, 2011 and landed at the

Aeolis Palus Aeolis Palus is a plain between the northern wall of Gale crater and the northern foothills of Aeolis Mons (Mount Sharp) on Mars. It is located at . The NASA Mars Science Laboratory mission landed the ''Curiosity'' rover on Aeolis Palus in Aug ...

plain near Aeolis Mons (informally "Mount Sharp") in Gale Crater on August 6, 2012. The ''Curiosity'' rover is still operational as of 2022. * '' Perseverance'', NASA rover based on the successful ''Curiosity'' design. Launched with the

Mars 2020 Mars 2020 is a Mars rover mission forming part of NASA's Mars Exploration Program that includes the rover '' Perseverance'', the small robotic, coaxial helicopter '' Ingenuity'', and associated delivery vehicles. Mars 2020 was launched from ...

mission on July 30, 2020, it landed on February 18, 2021. It carried the Mars Helicopter ''Ingenuity'' attached to its belly. * '' Zhurong'' launched with the Tianwen-1 CNSA Mars mission on July 23, 2020, landed on May 14, 2021 in the southern region of Utopia Planitia, and deployed on May 22, 2021, while dropping a remote selfie camera on 1 June, 2021.

Not active

* '' Mars 3'', '' PrOP-M'' rover, landed successfully on December 2, 1971. rover tethered to the Mars 3 lander. Lost when the ''Mars 3'' lander stopped communicating about 110 seconds after landing. The loss of communication may have been due to the extremely powerful Martian dust storm taking place at the time or an issue with the Mars 3 orbiter's ability to relay communications. * ''

'' rover,

, landed successfully on July 4, 1997. Communications were lost on September 27, 1997. ''Sojourner'' had traveled a distance of just over . * '' Spirit'' (MER-A),

Mars Exploration Rover NASA's Mars Exploration Rover (MER) mission was a robotic space mission involving two Mars rovers, '' Spirit'' and '' Opportunity'', exploring the planet Mars. It began in 2003 with the launch of the two rovers to explore the Martian surface ...

(MER), launched on June 10, 2003, and landed on January 4, 2004. Nearly 6 years after the original mission limit, ''Spirit'' had covered a total distance of but its wheels became trapped in sand. The last communication received from the rover was on March 22, 2010, and NASA ceased attempts to re-establish communication on May 25, 2011. * '' Opportunity'' (MER-B), Mars Exploration Rover, launched on July 7, 2003 and landed on January 25, 2004. ''Opportunity'' surpassed the previous records for longevity at 5,352

sol Sol or SOL may refer to: Astronomy * The Sun Currency * SOL Project, a currency project in France * French sol, or sou * Argentine sol * Bolivian sol, the currency of Bolivia from 1827 to 1864 * Peruvian sol, introduced in 1991 * Peruvian sol ...

s (5498 Earth days from landing to mission end; 15 Earth years or 8 Martian years) and covered . The rover sent its last status on 10 June 2018 when a global 2018 Mars dust storm blocked the sunlight needed to recharge its batteries. After hundreds of attempts to reactivate the rover, NASA declared the mission complete on February 13, 2019.

Failed

* '' Mars 2'', '' PrOP-M'' rover, 1971, ''Mars 2'' landing failed taking Prop-M with it. The ''Mars 2'' and ''3'' spacecraft from the Soviet Union had identical 4.5 kg ''Prop-M'' rovers. They were to move on skis while connected to the landers with cables.

Planned

* The European-Russian ExoMars rover ''Rosalind Franklin'' was confirmed technically ready for launch in March 2022 and planned to launch in September 2022, but due to the suspension of cooperation with Roscosmos this is delayed and a fast-track study was started to determine alternative launch options.

Proposed

* The

JAXA The is the Japanese national air and space agency. Through the merger of three previously independent organizations, JAXA was formed on 1 October 2003. JAXA is responsible for research, technology development and launch of satellites into o ...

Melos rover was supposed to be launched in 2022. JAXA has not given an update since 2015. *

Mars Geyser Hopper The Mars Geyser Hopper (MGH) is a NASA design reference mission for a Discovery-class spacecraft concept that would investigate the springtime carbon dioxide Martian geysers found in regions around the south pole of Mars. The power technology t ...

ISRO The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO; ) is the national space agency of India, headquartered in Bengaluru. It operates under the Department of Space (DOS) which is directly overseen by the Prime Minister of India, while the Chairman o ...

has proposed a Mars rover as part of MOM-3, its third Mars mission in 2030.

Undeveloped

* Marsokhod was proposed to be a part of Russian Mars 96 mission. *

Astrobiology Field Laboratory The Astrobiology Field Laboratory (AFL) (also Mars Astrobiology Field Laboratory or MAFL) was a proposed NASA unmanned spacecraft that would have conducted a robotic search for life on Mars. This proposed mission, which was not funded, would ...

, proposed in the 2000-2010 period as a follow on to MSL. * Mars Astrobiology Explorer-Cacher (MAX-C), cancelled 2011 * Mars Surveyor 2001 rover * ''Mars Tumbleweed Rover'', a spherical wind-propelled rover. * In 2018, a kind of cushion-air rover was proposed, which in contrast with traditional hovercraft does not use blowers to pressurize the gas in the chamber but rather uses stored pressurized CO₂ obtained from a freezing process which does not require mechanical compression.

Timeline of rover surface operations

Examples of instruments

Examples of instruments onboard landed rovers include: * Alpha particle X-ray spectrometer (MPF + MER + MSL) * CheMin (MSL) *

Chemistry and Camera complex Chemistry and Camera complex (ChemCam) is a suite of remote sensing instruments on Mars for the ''Curiosity'' rover. As the name implies, ChemCam is actually two different instruments combined as one: a laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIB ...

(MSL) *

Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons The Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons (DAN) instrument is an experiment mounted on the Mars Science Laboratory ''Curiosity'' rover. It is a pulsed sealed-tube neutron source and detector used to measure hydrogen or ice and water at or near the Marti ...

(MSL) * Hazcam (MER + MSL + M20) *

MarsDial The MarsDial is a sundial that was devised for missions to Mars. It is used to calibrate the Pancam cameras of the Mars landers. MarsDials were placed on the ''Spirit'' and '' Opportunity'' Mars rovers, inscribed with the words "Two worlds, One ...

(MER + MSL + M20) *

Materials Adherence Experiment The Materials Adherence Experiment (MAE) was a material science experiment conducted between July 4, 1997 and August 12, 1997 during NASA's ''Mars Pathfinder'' mission. This was a joint experiment between NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory ...

(MPF) * MIMOS II (MER) * Mini-TES (MER) * Mars Hand Lens Imager (MSL) * Navcam (MER + MSL + M20+TW1) * Pancam (MER) *

Rock Abrasion Tool The Rock Abrasion Tool (RAT) is a grinding and brushing installation on NASA’s twin Mars Exploration Rovers, ''Spirit'' (MER-A) and '' Opportunity'' (MER-B), which landed on Mars in January 2004. It was designed, developed and continues to be ...

(MER) *

Radiation assessment detector The Radiation Assessment Detector (RAD) is an instrument mounted on the Mars Science Laboratory ''Curiosity'' rover. It was the first of ten instruments to be turned on during the mission. Purpose The first role of RAD was to characterize the b ...

(MSL) *

Rover Environmental Monitoring Station Rover Environmental Monitoring Station (REMS) is a weather station on Mars for Curiosity rover contributed by Spain and Finland. REMS measures humidity, pressure, temperature, wind speeds, and ultraviolet radiation on Mars. This Spanish project ...

(MSL) * Sample Analysis at Mars (MSL) * EDL cameras on Rover (MSL + M20+TW1) * Cachecam (M20) *

Mastcam-Z Mastcam-Z is a multispectral, stereoscopic imaging instrument. It serves as the primary science camera on NASA's ''Perseverance'' rover. The Principal Investigator is Jim Bell of Arizona State University. The instrument was designed and built b ...

(M20) *

MEDA Meda may refer to: Places * Meda de Mouros, a parish in Tábua Municipality, Portugal * Medas, a parish in Gondomar Municipality, Portugal * Meda-Ela, Sri Lanka * Međa (Leskovac), village in the municipality of Leskovac, Serbia * Meda, Lombardy, ...

(M20) *

Microphone A microphone, colloquially called a mic or mike (), is a transducer that converts sound into an electrical signal. Microphones are used in many applications such as telephones, hearing aids, public address systems for concert halls and publ ...

s (M20+TW1) * MOXIE (M20) * PIXL (M20) *

RIMFAX The Radar Imager for Mars' subsurface experiment (RIMFAX) is a ground-penetrating radar on NASA's ''Perseverance'' rover, part of the Mars 2020 mission. It uses radar waves to see geologic features under the surface. The device can make dete ...

(M20) * SHERLOC (M20) *

SuperCam SuperCam is a suite of remote-sensing instruments for the Mars 2020 ''Perseverance'' rover mission that performs remote analyses of rocks and soils with a camera, two lasers and four spectrometers to seek organic compounds that could hold biosig ...

(M20) * Remote Camera (TW1)

Mars landing locations

NASA Mars rover goals

Circa the 2010s, NASA had established certain goals for the rover program. NASA distinguishes between "mission" objectives and "science" objectives. Mission objectives are related to progress in

space technology Space technology is technology for use in outer space, in travel (''astronautics'') or other activities beyond Earth's atmosphere, for purposes such as spaceflight, space exploration, and Earth observation. Space technology includes space vehicles ...

and development processes. Science objectives are met by the instruments during their mission in space. The science instruments are chosen and designed based on the science objectives and goals. The primary goal of the ''Spirit'' and ''Opportunity'' rovers was to investigate "the history of water on Mars". The four science goals of NASA's long-term Mars Exploration Program are: * Determine whether life ever arose on Mars * Characterize the climate of Mars * Characterize the

geology of Mars The geology of Mars is the scientific study of the surface, crust, and interior of the planet Mars. It emphasizes the composition, structure, history, and physical processes that shape the planet. It is analogous to the field of terrestrial g ...

* Prepare for

human exploration of Mars The idea of sending humans to Mars has been the subject of aerospace engineering and scientific studies since the late 1940s as part of the broader exploration of Mars. Some have also considered exploring the Martian moons of Phobos and Deimos ...

Gallery

Image:Sojourner on Mars PIA01122.jpg, ''Sojourner'' rover on Mars Image:h rover-comp wheels 02.jpg, Comparison of wheels: Mars ''Sojourner'' rover, MER, MSL Image:Mars Science Laboratory mockup comparison.jpg, Comparison (2008): MER, ''Sojourner'' rover, MSL Image:PIA15279 3rovers-stand D2011 1215 D521.jpg, Comparison (2011): MER, ''Sojourner'' rover, humans, MSL

References

External links

NASA official Mars Rover website

Mars Pathfinder Gallery
(NASA)
All Rovers on Mars
{{Portal bar, Solar System, Spaceflight +rovers Landers (spacecraft) Mars robots