Mars Rover

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A Mars Rover is an unmanned land vehicle for exploration of the planet Mars.

Introduction

Five rovers have been sent and one is scheduled to be sent to Mars so far:

• Mars 2, November 27 1971
• Mars 3, December 2 1971
• Sojourner, Mars Pathfinder, July 4 1997
• Spirit, Mars Exploration Rover, January 4, 2004
• Opportunity, Mars Exploration Rover, January 25 2004
• Mars Science Laboratory

• ExoMars

The Soviet Union landed the first Mars rover when the Mars 2 lander touched down on November 27, 1971. Five days later, its twin landed with the Mars 3 lander. Both landers failed, however.

The first successful Mars Rover, called Sojourner, was sent to Mars by NASA on December 4, 1996 and successfully landed on Mars on July 4, 1997.

NASA used a new, larger design for the two Mars Exploration Rovers: Spirit launched on June 10, 2003 and Opportunity launched on July 7, 2003. Spirit landed in Gusev crater on January 3, 2004 and Opportunity landed in the Meridiani Planum on the opposite side of Mars from Spirit, on January 25, 2004.

So far all Mars Rovers have been small robotic vehicles intended to travel only a few hundred meters. All three NASA rovers have exceeded their planned missions both in distance travelled and operating time.

See also

• Mars Exploration Rover

External link

• [Rover NASA Homepage]

 

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