Mars rover

A Mars rover is a motor vehicle that travels across the surface of the planet Mars upon arrival. 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.

This article is about autonomous exploration vehicles. For crewed vehicles on Mars, see Crewed Mars rover.
Mark Rober's conception of the Curiosity rover vaporizing rock on Mars. The rover landed on Mars in August 2012.

There have been four successful robotically operated Mars rovers, all managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory: Sojourner, Opportunity, Spirit and Curiosity. On January 24, 2016, NASA reported that current studies on Mars by Curiosity and Opportunity (the latter now defunct) would be searching for evidence of ancient life, including a biosphere based on autotrophic, chemotrophic or chemolithoautotrophic microorganisms, as well as ancient water, including fluvio-lacustrine environments (plains related to ancient rivers or lakes) that may have been habitable.[1][2][3][4][5] The search for evidence of habitability, taphonomy (related to fossils), and organic carbon on Mars is now a primary NASA objective.[1] In June 2018, Opportunity went out of contact after going into hibernation mode in a dust storm.[6] NASA declared the end of the Opportunity mission on February 13, 2019, after numerous failures to wake up the rover.[7]

Mars 2, Mars 3 were physically tethered probes; Sojourner was dependent on the Mars Pathfinder base station for communication with Earth; MER-A & B and Curiosity were on their own. As of February 2021, Curiosity is still active, while Spirit, Opportunity, and Sojourner completed their missions before losing contact.

Missions
Comparison of distances driven by various wheeled vehicles on the surface of the Moon and Mars.

Six rovers have been dispatched to Mars:

  • 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.[8]
  • Mars 3, Prop-M rover, 1971, lost when Mars 3 lander stopped communicating about 20 seconds after landing.[8]
  • Sojourner rover, Mars Pathfinder, landed successfully on July 4, 1997. Communications were lost on September 27, 1997.
  • Spirit (MER-A), Mars Exploration Rover, launched on June 10, 2003,[9] and landed on January 4, 2004. Nearly 6 years after the original mission limit, Spirit had covered a total distance of 7.73 km (4.80 mi) but its wheels became trapped in sand.[10] The last communication received from the rover was on March 22, 2010, and NASA ceased attempts to re-establish communication on May 25, 2011.[11]
  • Opportunity (MER-B), Mars Exploration Rover, launched on July 7, 2003[9] and landed on January 25, 2004. Opportunity surpassed the previous records for longevity at 5,352 sols (5498 Earth days from landing to mission end; 15 Earth years or 8 Martian years) and coverance of 45.16 km (28.06 mi). 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.[12] After hundreds of attempts to reactivate the rover, NASA declared the mission complete on February 13, 2019.
  • Curiosity of the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission by NASA, was launched November 26, 2011[13][14] and landed at the Aeolis Palus plain near Aeolis Mons (informally "Mount Sharp")[15][16][17][18] in Gale Crater on August 6, 2012.[19][20][21] The Curiosity rover is still operational as of February 2021.
Sojourner disembarks Mars Pathfinder base station lander on the surface of planet Mars

En-route

Tianwen-1, a Chinese project, launched on Thursday 23rd July 2020 and is currently en-route and expected to land in February 2021.

Perseverance, a NASA rover, based on the successful Curiosity design launched on Thursday 30th July 2020 and is currently en-route and expected to land in February 2021.

Planned

The European-Russian ExoMars rover Rosalind Franklin is planned to launch in 2022.

Proposed

The JAXA Melos rover is to be launched in 2022.

The NASA Mars Geyser Hopper

Undeveloped
Mock-up of canceled Mars Surveyor 2001 rover, tabled after the triple failure of Mars Polar Lander, Deep Space 2, and Mars Climate Orbiter in the late 1990s


Curiosity's (MSL) rover "hand" featuring a suite of instruments on a rotating "wrist", "Mount Sharp" is in the background (September 8, 2012).

Examples of instruments
Opportunity's first self-portrait including the camera mast on Mars
(February 14−20, 2018 / sols 4998−5004) It was taken with its microscopic imager instrument

Examples of instruments onboard landed rovers include:

Mars landing locations
Interactive image map of the global topography of Mars, overlain with locations of Mars landers and rovers. Hover your mouse over the image to see the names of over 60 prominent geographic features, and click to link to them. Coloring of the base map indicates relative elevations, based on data from the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter on NASA's Mars Global Surveyor. Whites and browns indicate the highest elevations (+12 to +8 km); followed by pinks and reds (+8 to +3 km); yellow is 0 km; greens and blues are lower elevations (down to −8 km). Axes are latitude and longitude; Polar regions are noted.
(See also: Mars map, Mars Memorials, Mars Memorials map) (view • discuss)
(   Active Rover •   Active Lander •   Future )
Mars Landing Sites (16 December 2020]

NASA Mars rover goals (circa 2010s)

NASA distinguishes between "mission" objectives and "science" objectives. Mission objectives are related to progress in space technology 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".[30]

The four science goals of NASA's long-term Mars Exploration Program are:

Panorama of Husband Hill taken by the Spirit rover (November, 2005)
  • Mars Rovers
  • Soviet Mars rover Prop-M (1972)
  • Sojourner rover on Mars
  • Sojourner rover atop Pathfinder lander
  • Comparison of wheels: Mars Sojourner rover, MER, MSL
  • Comparison: MER, Sojourner rover, MSL
  • Comparison: MER, Sojourner rover, humans, MSL
  • Concept: Crewed Mars rover
  • Martian sunset viewed by the Spirit rover (May 2005)
Opportunity rover later visited its heat shield impact site; it was ejected during the rover's descent and impacted the surface separately.

See also

References
  1. Grotzinger, John P. (January 24, 2014). "Introduction to Special Issue - Habitability, Taphonomy, and the Search for Organic Carbon on Mars". Science. 343 (6169): 386–387. Bibcode:2014Sci...343..386G. doi:10.1126/science.1249944. PMID 24458635.
  2. Various (January 24, 2014). "Special Issue - Table of Contents - Exploring Martian Habitability". Science. 343 (6169): 345–452. Retrieved 24 January 2014.CS1 maint: uses authors parameter (link)
  3. Various (January 24, 2014). "Special Collection - Curiosity - Exploring Martian Habitability". Science. Retrieved January 24, 2014.CS1 maint: uses authors parameter (link)
  4. Grotzinger, J.P. et al. (January 24, 2014). "A Habitable Fluvio-Lacustrine Environment at Yellowknife Bay, Gale Crater, Mars". Science. 343 (6169): 1242777. Bibcode:2014Sci...343A.386G. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.455.3973. doi:10.1126/science.1242777. PMID 24324272. S2CID 52836398.CS1 maint: uses authors parameter (link)
  5. "Planetary Scientists Have Created a Map of Mars' Entire Ancient River Systems". Universe Today. 2020-12-30. Retrieved 2020-12-31.
  6. Mars Exploration Rover - Opportunity mission updates, mars.nasa.gov
  7. "NASA declares Mars rover Opportunity dead after 15 years on the red planet". The Daily Telegraph. February 13, 2019.
  8. "Mars 2 Lander". NASA NSSDC. Retrieved 2008-06-25.
  9. "Mars Exploration". 10 August 2012. Retrieved 2012-08-10.
  10. Boyle, Alan. "Good moves on Mars". MSNBC. Archived from the original on 2010-01-23. Retrieved 2010-01-22.
  11. "NASA Concludes Attempts To Contact Mars Rover Spirit". NASA. May 24, 2011.
  12. "Mars Exploration Rover Mission: All Opportunity Updates". mars.nasa.gov. Retrieved 31 October 2018.
  13. "Mars Science Laboratory Launch". 26 November 2011. Retrieved 2011-11-26.
  14. "NASA Launches Super-Size Rover to Mars: 'Go, Go!'". New York Times. Associated Press. 26 November 2011. Retrieved 2011-11-26.
  15. USGS (16 May 2012). "Three New Names Approved for Features on Mars". USGS. Archived from the original on 28 July 2012. Retrieved 28 May 2012.
  16. NASA Staff (27 March 2012). "'Mount Sharp' on Mars Compared to Three Big Mountains on Earth". NASA. Retrieved 31 March 2012.
  17. Agle, D. C. (28 March 2012). "'Mount Sharp' On Mars Links Geology's Past and Future". NASA. Retrieved 31 March 2012.
  18. Staff (29 March 2012). "NASA's New Mars Rover Will Explore Towering 'Mount Sharp'". Space.com. Retrieved 30 March 2012.
  19. Webster, Guy; Brown, Dwayne (22 July 2011). "NASA's Next Mars Rover To Land At Gale Crater". NASA JPL. Retrieved 2011-07-22.
  20. Chow, Dennis (22 July 2011). "NASA's Next Mars Rover to Land at Huge Gale Crater". Space.com. Retrieved 2011-07-22.
  21. Amos, Jonathan (22 July 2011). "Mars rover aims for deep crater". BBC News. Retrieved 2011-07-22.
  23. de Selding, Peter B. (20 April 2011). "ESA Halts Work on ExoMars Orbiter and Rover". Space News. Retrieved 2011-04-21.
  24. Svitak, Amy (18 April 2011). "U.S., Europe Plan Single-rover Mars Mission for 2018". Space News. Retrieved 2011-04-21.
  25. "NASA - NSSDCA - Spacecraft - Details".
  26. Kimberly W. Land (May 13, 2003). "A new way to explore the surface of Mars". NASA. Retrieved 2011-04-04.
  27. The Tumbleweed Rover is on a Roll. Anna Heiney, KSC NASA. 11 March 2004.
  28. Arias, Francisco. J (2018). "CO2-Cushion Vehicle for Mars. An Alternative Locomotion for Exploration Rovers". 2018 Joint Propulsion Conference. 54nd AIAA/SAE/ASEE Joint Propulsion Conference Cincinnati, OH, Propulsion and Energy, (AIAA 2018–4492). doi:10.2514/6.2018-4492. ISBN 978-1-62410-570-8.
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