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
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, ...
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 ...
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.
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. ...
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.
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 ...
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.
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) ...
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 ...
New cleaning protocol for future 'search for life' missions
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Jun 08, 2009 |
4.8 / 5 (4) |
0
Scientists have developed a new cleaning protocol for space hardware, such as the scoops of Mars rovers, which could be used on future "Search for Life" missions on other planets.
Free Spirit: Longer Rover Tests Beginning
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Jul 27, 2009 |
4.7 / 5 (3) |
0
(PhysOrg.com) -- Mars rover team members have begun a new phase of testing at JPL -- using longer-duration experiments -- in their preparations for driving Spirit again on Mars.
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.
NASA Releases Interactive 3-D Views of Space Station, New Mars Rover
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
May 07, 2009 |
3.3 / 5 (3) |
0
(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.
Test Mars Rover Checks Pivoting Technique
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Jul 17, 2009 |
5 / 5 (2) |
0
The Mars rover team is using a test rover at JPL to assess various extraction techniques that might get Spirit out of the loose soil of "Troy" on Mars.
'Curiosity': NASA Selects Student's Entry as New Mars Rover Name
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
May 27, 2009 |
5 / 5 (1) |
0
(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 ...
