Mars-Rover

A Mars rover is a remotely operated vehicle ( see Rover ) for research on Mars, which is equipped with different devices and tools.

During the whole period of the exploration of the planet Mars, there were four successful missions with Mars rovers, of them are currently being launched in July 2003, the Opportunity rover and the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity active (as of August 2012). Mars rovers are or were controlled by radio from the ground, some also have autonomous capabilities and send their measurement results back to the earth.

Started Mars Rover

  • The countries of the Soviet space probes Mars 2 and Mars 3 were equipped with Mars rover type PROP -M. The landing of Mars 2 failed on 27 November 1971 the lander crashed on the Martian surface. The landing of Mars 3 on December 2, 1971 was successful, but the radio contact broke off after a few seconds, so that here also the rover was not used.
  • Sojourner, the first successful Mars rovers, worked as part of NASA's Mars Pathfinder program 4 July to 27 September 1997.
  • Spirit and Opportunity landed in January 2004, the same design on Mars. From March 22 2010 to no contact could be established to the rover Spirit, which is why NASA on 25 May 2011 stopped the contact attempts. Nevertheless, the six-year use of Spirit and the fact that Opportunity is still fully functional, remarkable because the planned life of the rovers was only about three months.
  • The Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity is a Mars Rover NASA. The launch took place on 26 November 2011., The Mars landing was successful on 6 August 2012.

Planned Mars Rover

  • ExoMars is a Mars Rover of the European Space Agency. Landing on Mars is planned for the year 2018.
  • In the joint mission of ESA and NASA Mars Sample Return a Mars rover is also used. The launch is scheduled for the year 2018.
Mars Exploration Rover Lander (spacecraft) Soviet space program Mars sample return mission Comparison of embedded computer systems on board the Mars rovers
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