Mars Rovers Archives

January 15, 2021January 15, 2021 by Nancy Atkinson

Thanks to Perseverance, We’re Finally Going to Hear What Mars Sounds Like

Many consider the various rovers we’ve sent to Mars as the next best thing to sending a geologist to the Red Planet. Spirit, Opportunity and Curiosity have carried all the necessary equipment similar to what human geologists use on Earth, and are able to navigate the terrain, “see” the landscape with the various cameras, pick up rock and dust samples with scoops, and then analyze them with various onboard tools and equipment.

In addition to all those things, the new Mars 2020 Perseverance rover will add a “sense of hearing” to its robotic toolkit. The rover includes a pair of microphones to let us hear – for the first time – what Mars really sounds like.

November 10, 2020November 10, 2020 by Matt Williams

The Driest Place on Earth Could Help Predict How Life Might be Surviving on Mars

Future missions could determine the presence of past life on Mars by looking for signs of extreme metal-metabolizing bacteria. Credit: NASA.

In the next few years, Mars will be visited by three new rovers, the Perseverance, Tianwen-1, and Rosalind Franklin missions. Like their predecessors – Pathfinder and Sojourner, Spirit and Opportunity, and Curiosity – these robotic missions will explore the surface, searching for evidence of past and present life. But even after years of exploring, an important question remains: where is the best place to look?

To date, all attempts to find evidence of life on the surface have yielded nothing, owing to the fact that the Martian environment is extremely cold, desiccated, and irradiated. According to a new study by an international team of researchers led by Cornell University and the Centro de Astrobiología in Madrid, the Atacama desert in the mountains of Chile could hold the answer.

July 6, 2020July 6, 2020 by Evan Gough

China’s Mars Rover Launches in Late July

A previous launch of the Long March 5, lifting off from Wenchang on July 2nd, 2017. Credit: CNS

In July there’s another launch window to Mars. It looks like China is ready to take advantage of it, by launching their first rover to the planet. It’s called Tianwen-1, meaning “Heavenly Questions”, or “Questions to Heaven.” The complete mission consists of a lander, an orbiter, and a rover.

June 30, 2020June 30, 2020 by Evan Gough

Rovers Will be Starting to Make Their Own Decisions About Where to Search for Life

An artist's illustration of the ExoMars/Rosalind Franklin rover on Mars. Image Credit: ESA/ATG medialab

We all know how exploration by rover works. The rover is directed to a location and told to take a sample. Then it subjects that sample to analysis and sends home the results. It’s been remarkably effective.

But it’s expensive and time-consuming to send all this data home. Will this way of doing things still work? Or can it be automated?

April 30, 2020April 30, 2020 by Nancy Atkinson

Mars Helicopter gets a Name: Ingenuity

Artist's concept of the Mars Helicopter on the Martian surface. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Flying low over the surface of Mars. Don’t tell me you haven’t dreamed about it, especially with some of the ‘Mars flyover’ videos that have been produced over the years using data from the orbital missions. And if all goes well – global pandemic not withstanding — a helicopter will be on its way to the Red Planet in just a few months.

November 20, 2019November 20, 2019 by Evan Gough

Scientists Search for Ancient Fossils in Australia, Practicing the Techniques They’ll Use on Mars

This artist's rendition depicts NASA's Mars 2020 rover studying its surroundings. Credit: NASA

NASA’s Mars 2020 Rover is heading to Mars soon to look for fossils. The ESA/Roscosmos ExoMars rover is heading to Mars in the same time-frame to carry out its own investigations into Martian habitability. To meet their mission objectives, the scientists working the missions will need to look at a lot of rocks and uncover and understand the clues those rocks hold.

To help those scientists prepare for the daunting task of analyzing and understanding Martian rocks from 160 million km (100 million miles) away, they’ve gone on a field trip to Australia to study stromatolites.

June 7, 2019June 7, 2019 by Evan Gough

You Can Use a Live Webcam to Watch NASA Build the Mars 2020 Rover

NASA's Mars 2020 rover under construction at JPL. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-CalTech

NASA’s next mission to the surface of Mars is called the 2020 rover (in case you didn’t know already.) It’s planned launch date is July 17th, 2020, and it should land at Jezero Crater on Mars on February 18th 2021. The rover is still under construction at the Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, California.

November 21, 2018 by Evan Gough

It’s Decided, the Mars 2020 Rover Will Land in Jezero Crater

After 5 years and 60 candidates, NASA has chosen Jezero crater as the landing site for the Mars 2020 rover. Image Credit: NASA/JPL/JHUAPL/MSSS/Brown University

Jezero crater is the landing spot for NASA’s upcoming 2020 rover. The crater is a rich geological site, and the 45 km wide (28 mile) impact crater contains at least five different types of rock that the rover will sample. Some of the landform features in the crater are 3.6 billion years old, making the site an ideal place to look for signs of ancient habitability.

Continue reading “It’s Decided, the Mars 2020 Rover Will Land in Jezero Crater”

October 2, 2018 by Evan Gough

A Tiny Motor on Curiosity was one of the First Instruments to Notice the Global Martian Dust Storm

A tiny electric motor on the Curiosity rover was one of the first instruments to notice a global Martian dust storm. The storm completely obscured the surface of Mars. Images from May 28 and July 1. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

A tiny electric motor on the Curiosity rover played a role in identifying a global Martian dust storm. The storm completely enveloped the planet between May and July, 2018. It was the biggest storm since 2007.

Continue reading “A Tiny Motor on Curiosity was one of the First Instruments to Notice the Global Martian Dust Storm”

May 28, 2018June 26, 2018 by Susie Murph

Astronomy Cast Ep. 493: Mars Update 2018

If there’s one place we’ve learned more about in the last 10 years, it’s Mars. Thanks to all those rovers, orbiters, landers which are flying overhead, crawling around the surface, and digging into the rich Martian regolith. What have we learned about Elon Musk’s future home?

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