Related topics: nasa , mars , spirit
Mars rover
hideA 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
Spirit Rover: Right-Front Wheel Rotations
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Dec 18, 2009 |
4.8 / 5 (5) |
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(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) |
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(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 ...
A Mars Rover Named 'Curiosity'
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Oct 30, 2009 |
4.9 / 5 (18) |
2
(PhysOrg.com) -- If you found your grandmother's diary, tattered and dust covered, up in the attic, would you read it? Of course you would. Granny was a pistol! Brush off the dust, open up the little book, ...
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 ...
Opportunity Rover Sees Variable Environmental History at Martian Victoria Crater
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
May 21, 2009 |
4.8 / 5 (13) |
2
(PhysOrg.com) -- One of NASA's two Mars rovers has recorded a compelling saga of environmental changes that occurred over billions of years at a Martian crater.
'Curiosity': NASA Selects Student's Entry as New Mars Rover Name
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
May 27, 2009 |
5 / 5 (1) |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- NASA's Mars Science Laboratory rover, scheduled for launch in 2011, has a new name, thanks to a sixth-grade student from Kansas. Twelve-year-old Clara Ma from the Sunflower Elementary school ...
Rover Spirit: Another Stall of Right-Rear Wheel Ends Drive
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Dec 02, 2009 |
2.5 / 5 (2) |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Spirit's right-rear wheel stalled again on Sol 2099 (Nov. 28, 2009) during the first step of a two-step extrication maneuver.
Not space junk yet: Mars rovers carry on despite age, ailments
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Jun 28, 2009 |
5 / 5 (15) |
4
In one of the most remarkable engineering feats of our time, the aging Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity are still taking orders and sending home pictures more than five years after they were supposed to ...
Amnesia-Like Behavior Returns on Spirit
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Oct 31, 2009 |
4.8 / 5 (8) |
3
(PhysOrg.com) -- Until Oct. 24, NASA's Mars Exploration Rover had gone more than six months without an episode of amnesia-like symptoms like those that appeared on four occasions earlier this year.
Meteorite Found on Mars Yields Clues About Planet's Past
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Aug 10, 2009 |
4.8 / 5 (11) |
2
(PhysOrg.com) -- NASA's Mars Rover Opportunity is investigating a metallic meteorite the size of a large watermelon that is providing researchers more details about the Red Planet's environmental history. ...
NASA Releases Interactive 3-D Views of Space Station, New Mars Rover
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
May 07, 2009 |
3.3 / 5 (3) |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- NASA released an interactive, 3-D photographic collection of internal and external views of the International Space Station and a model of the next Mars rover on Thursday, May 7.
One Mars Rover Sees a Distant Goal; The Other Takes a New Route
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Mar 18, 2009 |
4.6 / 5 (7) |
2
(PhysOrg.com) -- On a plain that stretches for miles in every direction, the panoramic camera on NASA's Mars rover Opportunity has caught a first glimpse on the horizon of the uplifted rim of the big crater ...
Socializing on Mars
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Jan 15, 2009 |
2 / 5 (1) |
0
(PhysOrg.com) -- After five groundbreaking years exploring the Red Planet, the communications engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory pretty much know what they are getting when another downlink from ...
Spirit Rover: Computer Modeling Supplements Dusty Testing
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Sep 15, 2009 |
3.7 / 5 (3) |
0
(PhysOrg.com) -- Tests on Earth simulating Spirit's predicament on Mars have reinforced understanding that getting Spirit to rove again will be very difficult.
