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Mars Exploration Rovers: Spirit & Opportunity - Artist's Concept

This artist's rendering depicts NASA's Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity. The twin rovers were launched in 2003 and arrived on Mars in January 2004.

December 10, 2015

This artist's rendering depicts NASA's Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity. The twin rovers were launched in 2003 and arrived on Mars in January 2004.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages the Mars Exploration Rover Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

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NASA/JPL-Caltech

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The smaller, narrow ridges oriented vertically are yardangs
Meanders and Tributaries in Ridge Form in the Zephyria Region (3-D)
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Panorama is made up of 127 individual images taken on June 20, 2022 by NASA'S Curiosity Mars rover.
Curiosity's 360-Degree Panorama of 'Avanavero' Drill Site
Opportunity used its panoramic camera to take the images combined into this mosaic view of the rover.
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Opportunity used its panoramic camera to take the images combined into this mosaic view of the rover.
Opportunity Self-Portrait
This image shows the trail of NASA’s Mars InSight lander over the Los Angeles area after launching from Vandenberg Air Force Base in Central California on May 5, 2018. This is a stack of exposures ...
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This image shows the trail of NASA’s Mars InSight lander over the Los Angeles area after launching from Vandenberg Air Force Base in Central California on May 5, 2018. This is a stack of exposures taken from Mt. Wilson.
InSight on Its Way to Mars
A "Martian mechanic" checks beneath the completely deployed Rover 1 lander. Atop the lander is Rover 1 with its wheels and solar arrays in the stowed position.
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A "Martian mechanic" checks beneath the completely deployed Rover 1 lander. Atop the lander is Rover 1 with its wheels and solar arrays in the stowed position.
Rover 1 and lander
An engineer inspects the completed spacecraft that will carry NASA's next Mars rover to the Red Planet.
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An engineer inspects the completed spacecraft that will carry NASA's next Mars rover to the Red Planet, prior to a test in the Space Simulator Facility at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
Mars 2020 Is Coming Together
Late on Feb. 12, 2019, mission controllers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, sent the last commands to ask NASA’s Opportunity rover on Mars to call home. 
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Late on Feb. 12, 2019, mission controllers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, sent the last commands to ask NASA’s Opportunity rover on Mars to call home.
Last Commands to Opportunity
This view from Opportunity shows the tracks left by a drive executed with more onboard autonomy than has been used on any other drive by a Mars rover.
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NASA's twin Mars Exploration Rovers got smarter as they got older. This view from Opportunity shows the tracks left by a drive executed with more onboard autonomy than has been used on any other drive by a Mars rover.
D-Star Panorama by Opportunity
Technicians maneuver the aeroshell for Mars Exploration Rover 2 onto a workstand in the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility.
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Mars Exploration Rover: Opening aeroshell
Download a PDF of the Mars Reconaissance Orbiter Fact Sheet.
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MRO fact sheet
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Fact Sheet
The rock abrasion tool on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit ground two holes in a relatively soft rock called "Wooly Patch" near the base of the "Columbia Hills" inside Gusev Crater on Mars.
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The rock abrasion tool on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit ground two holes in a relatively soft rock called "Wooly Patch" near the base of the "Columbia Hills" inside Gusev Crater on Mars.
Two Holes in 'Wooly Patch' (False Color)
This mosaic shows part of the path NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover took through a portion of a boulder field dubbed “Snowdrift Peak.” With the help of its self-driving autonomous navigation system, ...
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This mosaic shows part of the path NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover took through a portion of a boulder field dubbed “Snowdrift Peak.”
Perseverance Makes Tracks in Boulder Field
In this August 5, 2019 image, the bit carousel - the heart of sampling and caching subsystem of NASA’s Mars 2020 mission -  is attached to the front end of the rover.
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In this August 5, 2019 image, the bit carousel - the heart of sampling and caching subsystem of NASA’s Mars 2020 mission - is attached to the front end of the rover.
Cache and Carry
Spirit examined spectacular layered rocks exposed at "Home Plate."
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Spirit examined spectacular layered rocks exposed at "Home Plate."
Spirit Says Goodbye to 'Home Plate'
This 360-degree stereo anaglyph of the terrain surrounding NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit on the 147th martian day of the rover's mission inside Gusev Crater, on June 1, 2004, was assembled f...
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This 360-degree stereo anaglyph of the terrain surrounding NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit
Spirit's View on Sol 147 (3-D)
This series of images, taken by the Opportunity rover in July 2007, shows a darkening sky as a huge regional dust storm covered both Opportunity and her twin rover, Spirit.
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Mars dust opacities MER-B Sol 1205 to 1235
A Darkened Mars Sky
The yellow line on this map shows where NASA's Mars Rover Opportunity has driven from the place where it landed in January 2004 -- inside Eagle crater, at the upper left end of the track -- to a po...
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The yellow line on this map shows where NASA's Mars Rover Opportunity has driven from the place where it landed in January 2004 -- inside Eagle crater, at the upper left end of the track -- to a point about 2.2 miles (3.5 kilometers) away from reaching the rim of Endeavour crater.
Eagle to Endeavour: Opportunity's Path, Sol 2609
This image highlights the bumpy terrain surrounding the rover.
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This image highlights the bumpy terrain surrounding the rover.
Spirit Spies Its Shadow
Conceptual image of wind (blue arrows) flowing over rugged Martian terrain and generating disturbances that propagate upward as atmospheric gravity waves (grey lines). 
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Conceptual image of wind (blue arrows) flowing over rugged Martian terrain and generating disturbances that propagate upward as atmospheric gravity waves (grey lines).
Artist's Concept of Wind Flowing over Martian Terrain
A rock with a white edge and a red center reminds us of a jelly donut in a box from the local donut shop in this image taken by Opportunity on February 4, 2014. Named “pinnacle Island” by Opportun...
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A rock with a white edge and a red center reminds us of a jelly donut in a box from the local donut shop in this image taken by Opportunity on February 4, 2014. Named "pinnacle Island" by Opportunity's science team, this rock mysteriously appeared in an image where it had not been 4 days earlier. Scientists believe that opportunity drove over and broke a rocks in the upper part of this image, sending that piece of pastry rolling downhill.
A Sweet Find
This image superimposes an artist's concept of the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity on the rim of Victoria Crater. It is done to give a sense of scale.
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This image superimposes an artist's concept of the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity on the rim of Victoria Crater. It is done to give a sense of scale.
Superimposed Rover on Rim of Victoria Crater
NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has been working on Mars since landing inside Eagle Crater on Jan. 25, 2004 (Universal Time; evening of Jan. 24, Pacific Standard Time).
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NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has been working on Mars since landing inside Eagle Crater on Jan. 25, 2004 (Universal Time; evening of Jan. 24, Pacific Standard Time).
Opportunity's Journey, Approaching 10th Anniversary
Opportunity captured this vista of "Victoria Crater" from the viewpoint of "Cape Verde," one of the promontories that are part of the scalloped rim of the crater.
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Opportunity captured this vista of "Victoria Crater" from the viewpoint of "Cape Verde," one of the promontories that are part of the scalloped rim of the crater.
Panorama from 'Cape Verde'
In the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility, workers prepare to lift the Mars Exploration Rover-1 (MER-B) onto a spin table during preflight processing of the spacecraft.
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In the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility, workers prepare to lift the Mars Exploration Rover-1 (MER-B) onto a spin table during preflight processing of the spacecraft.
Preflight Processing

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