Two Generations of Rovers

Engineers for NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Mission are completing assembly and testing for the twin robotic geologists at JPL. This

This false-color panoramic image, taken on martian day, or sol, 561 (Aug. 22, 2005) by the Opportunity rover, shows the nature of the outcrop rocks that the rover is encountering on its southward j...

NASA's Mars rovers keep getting bigger. This photo provides a comparison of the wheel sizes for three generations of them.

This graphic compares atmospheric opacity in different Mars years from the point of view of NASA’s Opportunity rover. 

Bekah Sosland was an eighth-grade student in Fredericksburg, Texas, when NASA's Mars Exploration Rovers Spirit and Opportunity landed on Mars in January 2004.

This infographic highlights NASA’s twin robot geologists, the Mars Exploration Rovers (MER) Spirit and Opportunity.  The rovers landed on the Red Planet in 2004, in search of answers about the hist...

Wheel tracks from NASA's Mars rover Opportunity descending and departing the "Cape Tribulation" segment of Endeavour Crater's rim are visible in this April 21, 2017, view from the rover's Panoramic...

These two thumbnail images, with the ghostly dot of a faint Sun near the middle of each, are the last images NASA's Opportunity rover took on Mars.

A section of the Mars Science Laboratory's Gale Crater landing site is shown, with a representative path from the landing location toward the layered mound to the south.

Researchers created each of 11 pieces in the 3D printer and glued them together to build the true-size model.

NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity, working on Mars since January 2004, passed 25 miles of total driving on the July 27, 2014. The gold line on this map shows Opportunity's route from the la...

This image from the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit's rear hazard identification camera shows the rover's hind view of the lander platform, its nest for the past 12 sols, or martian days. The rover i...

Mars Exploration Rover parachute deployment testing in the world's largest wind tunnel at NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffet Field, Calif.

This image from the panoramic camera on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity shows a rock called "Chocolate Hills," which the rover found and examined at the edge of a young crater called "Con...

NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity captured this view after beginning to ascend the northwestern slope of "Solander Point" on the western rim of Endeavour Crater.

This synthetic image of the Spirit Mars Exploration Rover on the flank of "Husband Hill" was produced using "Virtual Presence in Space" technology.

This stereo scene from NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity shows part of "Marathon Valley," a destination on the western rim of Endeavour Crater, as seen from an overlook north of the valley.

This stereo anaglyph looking toward the northeast across "Endurance Crater" in Mars' Meridiani Planum region was assembled from frames taken by the navigation camera on NASA's Mars Exploration Rove...

This Sept. 21, 2016, scene from the panoramic camera (Pancam) on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity shows "Spirit Mound" overlooking the floor of Endeavour Crater. The mound stands near the ...

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine discusses the successful completion of the Opportunity Mars rover mission during a news briefing at the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California...

NASA's Opportunity Mars rover, working on Mars since January 2004, passed marathon distance in total driving on March 24, 2015. This map shows the rover's entire traverse from landing to that point.

This view of a rock called "Block Island," the largest meteorite yet found on Mars, comes from the panoramic camera (Pancam) on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity.

This is one of the first images beamed back to Earth shortly after the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit landed on the red planet.

Opportunity used its navigation camera for this northward view of tracks the rover left on a drive from one energy-favorable position on a sand ripple to another.

NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity drove about 12 feet (3.67 meters) on May 8, 2012, after spending 19 weeks working in one place while solar power was too low for driving during the Martian...