What is the Mars Rover?

I still believe that visiting neighboring planets and exploring our solar system should be one of the main priorities of our species. With projects like the Mars rovers we are learning more than ever about how planets are evolving and changing, and what could rest in the future for our own world.

If scientists are right and Mars was once a planet rich with water, and even possibly with life, what happened to make it the barren wasteland we see today?

Is it possible that we could find rich resources on neighboring planets? Resources that would help us preserve our own world?

Right now, we don't know, but hopefully continuing projects such as the Mars rovers will make some more interesting findings.

@Alchemy - I found it interesting that the Mars rover ended up being abandoned because its batteries died. I know the Mars rovers function off solar panels and have rechargeable batteries that can degrade over time, but you think they would have worked in a way to change the batteries or carry more backups, considering how expensive the product is.

I wonder if in the future they will be able to make smaller robots that will be able to change batteries and conduct simple repairs on their rovers? That would be really something if they could create a network of robots looking after one another on a distant planet.

How was the mars rover landing possible? It seems like such delicate equipment would have been broken to pieces during touchdown. What an amazing feat of engineering!

This was a great article and it makes me crave more information on the mars project. It is refreshing to read something on the internet that makes me want to learn more about science, technology, and how things work.

@Alchemy- You stated something that makes the mars rovers just as important to the scientific community as the Hubble telescope. Your statement about the silica rich sand that Spirit is stuck in was discovered by accident when operators were trying to back the rover off a rock. Spirit uncovered the silica as it dragged its broken wheel across the ground while in reverse. The camera spotted the shimmering sand, and identified the substance as silica.

Finding silica was probably the most significant discovery by either of the rovers because it proves there was water or steam that could support microbial life. The discovery brings scientists one step closer to determining if there was ever life on mars, and would not have been possible if the rover did not break down.

@highlighter- Sadly, the mars rover Spirit is still stuck. NASA has officially ended its mission after six years of broadcasting images and performing experiments on mars. The rover has been stuck on a silica laden sand bed since March 22, 2010 without transmitting a signal. The batteries were extremely low before shutting down for the last mars winter, not leaving the rover with enough power to restart to charge during the Martian spring.

Although Spirit has been stuck for a significant portion of its mission, it has still outperformed all expectations. The two rover craft on mars originally had a three-month mission plan, but they have explored the Martian surface for almost 7 years. A year and a half after Spirit went offline; Opportunity is still transmitting video while trudging across the landscape. The Opportunity is currently making its way to the downed spirit rover, currently at the edge of the crater where spirit lay dormant.

Does anyone know if the Mars Rover is still stuck or if it has freed itself? Are they still sending back information from Mars? How much longer are they expected to last on the planet? I have not kept up on the progress of the rovers in the last year or so.

I have seen some of the pictures transmitted back from the planet, mostly on television shows. They are some of the coolest pictures ever. I personally think that the landing of the Mars rovers was as important for American space exploration as the moon landing, albeit not as dramatic. This is the first step in putting a base, and possibly a team on mars.

I actually go to the school that helped NASA develop the Mars Spirit and Opportunity rover vehicles. U.S. News and Reports recently named Arizona State University one of the best schools for geological sciences, and that particular department developed the Mini-TES robots aboard the rovers. A number of ASU researchers are also members of the Spirit and Opportunity teams.

The rovers have collected invaluable data on the red planet, and the geologic information collected by the Mini-TES robots has been some of the most important. These robots are capable of identifying minerals at a distance, and created the first mineral maps of the surface of mars. These maps show the concentration of different mineral concentrations, which are transmitted back to Earth. The Work on the Mars Rover project is a great source of pride at ASU, showing that the school is much more than just fun in the sun.