Mars rover

Spirit and Opportunity

Models of previous Mars rovers in size comparison. Spirit (left), Sojourner (middle) and Curiosity (right)

Curiosity on Mars

A Mars rover is a remote-controlled vehicle (see rover ) for Mars research, which is equipped with various measuring devices and tools.

During the entire period of the exploration of the planet Mars there were four successful missions with Mars rovers. In the meantime, only the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity , which landed in August 2012, is still active after no contact with the Mars rover Opportunity could be established (as of June 2019). Mars rovers are or were controlled by radio from Earth . However, some of them also have autonomous capabilities and send their measurement results back to Earth.

Launched Mars rovers

• The landers of the Soviet space probes Mars 2 and Mars 3 were equipped with Mars rovers of the type PROP-M. The landing of Mars 2 failed on November 27, 1971, the lander crashed onto the surface of Mars. The landing of Mars 3 on December 2, 1971 was successful, but radio contact was broken after a few seconds, so that the rover was not used here either.
• Sojourner, the first successful Mars rover, worked as part of NASA's Mars Pathfinder program from July 4 to September 27, 1997.
• Spirit and the identical Mars rover Opportunity landed on Mars in January 2004. From March 22, 2010 onwards no contact could be made with the Rover Spirit, which is why NASA stopped the contact attempts on May 25, 2011. Still, Spirit's six-year deployment and the fact that Opportunity was fully operational by June 2018 is noteworthy, as the planned primary mission duration of the two rovers was only about three months.
• The Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity is a Mars rover from NASA. The launch took place on November 26, 2011. The Mars landing succeeded on August 6, 2012.
• The Chinese probe Tianwen-1 took off from Wenchang on July 23, 2020 and is currently on its way to Mars. It is scheduled to land in April 2021 and drop a rover.
• One week after Tianwen-1, the mission started with the Rover Perseverance with an Atlas V launcher . Part of this mission this time is a helicopter drone that is supposed to support the rover mission.

Planned Mars rovers

• For a future Mars sample return mission, a Mars rover will collect soil samples beforehand. The start of the Mars 2020 rover intended for this purpose was carried out in 2020.
• ExoMars Rover is a Mars rover as part of the ExoMars program of the European Space Agency . The start is planned for 2022.

See also

• Comparison of the embedded computer systems of the Mars rovers
• Aurora program
• Chronology of the missions to Mars

Web links

Commons : Mars Rover  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• 360 degree panorama NASA Rover Spirit

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Guy Webster: Spirit and Opportunity. Durable NASA Rover Beginning Ninth Year of Mars Work. NASA , January 4, 2012, accessed on July 31, 2012 (English): "Eight years after landing on Mars for what was planned as a three-month mission, ..." 
2. ↑ Heise Online: Six Months of Silence: Is There Any Hope For Mars Rover Opportunity? Retrieved December 7, 2018 . 
3. ↑ Süddeutsche Zeitung: China launches rocket for first landing on Mars. Retrieved July 23, 2020 . 
4. ↑ Countdown for NASA mission: start of the "Perseverance". Accessed July 30, 2020 . 
5. ↑ DER SPIEGEL: "Perseverance": NASA's Mars mission successfully started - DER SPIEGEL - Wissenschaft. Accessed July 30, 2020 .