Mars rover

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A Mars rover is a spacecraft which propels itself across the surface of Mars after landing.

Rovers have several advantages over stationary landers: 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 robotic vehicle control.

Their advantages over orbiting spacecraft are that they can make observations to a microscopic level and can conduct physical experimentation. Disadvantages of rovers compared to orbiters are the higher chance of failure, due to landing and other risks, and that they are limited to a small area around a landing site which itself is only approximately anticipated.

There have been three successful Mars rovers, all of which were robotically operated. (There have also been two successful non-Martian robotic rovers: in the 1970s the USSR sent two Lunokhod rovers to the Moon.)

For more information about Mars rover, read the full article at Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.

News tagged with mars rovers

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Spirit Rover: Right-Front Wheel Rotations

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Dec 18, 2009 | 4.8 / 5 (5) | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Spirit's right-front wheel, which had stopped operating in March 2006, revolved with apparently normal motion during the first three of four driving segments on Sol 2117 (Wednesday, Dec. 16) ...

Spirit Rover: Rear Wheel Trouble Continues

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Dec 10, 2009 | 4.8 / 5 (5) | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Results of diagnostic tests on Spirit's right-rear wheel on Sol 2109 (Dec. 8, 2009) continue to indicate a troubled wheel, which may leave the rover with only four operable wheels.

Mars Odyssey Orbiter Puts Itself Into Safe Standby

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Dec 01, 2009 | 5 / 5 (4) | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter put itself into a safe standby mode on Saturday, Nov. 28, and the team operating the spacecraft has begun implementing careful steps designed to resume Odyssey's ...

Further Tests Designed for Rover's Right-Rear Wheel

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Dec 08, 2009 | not rated yet | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- A series of diagnostic tests on Spirit's right-rear wheel on sols 2104 and 2105 (Dec. 3 and 4) investigated stalls that occurred on Sol 2099 (Nov. 28) and earlier. The rover team cannot draw ...