Mars Exploration Rovers

Mission News

Courtesy: NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, JPL Newsroom

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First Colour Image from Spirit | First Colour Image from Opportunity

Mission Updates

05.06.04 - Opportunity Arrives at Tempting Deeper Crater
Scientists and engineers celebrated when they saw the first pictures NASA's Opportunity sent from the rim of a stadium-sized crater that the rover reached after a six-week trek across martian flatlands.

04.28.04 - Opportunity: Mission Success
With 811.57 meters on its odometer, 12,429 images downloaded and a record for the longest one-sol drive under its belt, Opportunity completed its prime mission.

04.20.04 - Electric Martian Dust Devils
Research indicates that static electricity on Mars could potentially cause increased dust adhesion to space suits and equipment.

04.15.04 - Rover Finds Rock Resembling Meteorites
NASA's Opportunity rover has examined an odd volcanic rock on the plains of Mars' Meridiani Planum region with a composition unlike anything seen on Mars before, but scientists have found similarities to meteorites that fell to Earth.

04.14.04 - Rovers Refreshed and Ready to Rock
Both rovers are now operating with new "minds", after successful software updates.

04.08.04 - Mars Rovers' Mission Extended
The Mars Exploration Rovers will work five months beyond their three-month prime mission.

04.05.04 - Spirit Achieves Mission Success
Spirit has now completed 90 sols (martian "days") of surface operations, allowing mission scientists to check off the rover's last box for mission success.

04.01.04 - Spirit Finds Water Hints at Gusev
Clues from a wind-scalloped volcanic rock on Mars investigated by NASA's Spirit rover suggest repeated possible exposures to water inside Gusev Crater.

03.18.04 - Mineral in Mars 'Berries' Adds to Water Story
A major ingredient in small mineral spheres analyzed by NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity furthers understanding of past water at Opportunity's landing site.

03.08.04 - Rovers Watching Solar Eclipses
The eclipse-watching campaign began this month with Opportunity's panoramic camera view of Mars' smaller moon, Deimos.

03.02.04 - Rover Finds Signs of Wet Martian Past
NASA's Opportunity rover is showing indications that water once flowed on Mars.

02.27.04 - Sunset Clip from Opportunity Tells Dusty Tale
Dust gradually obscures the Sun during a blue-sky martian sunset seen in a sequence of newly processed frames from NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity.

02.20.04 - Opportunity Examines Trench as Spirit Prepares to Dig One
NASA's Opportunity rover is finding some unexpected things in a martian trench, while Spirit is getting set for its own dig at "Laguna Hollow."

02.12.04 - Spirit Talks to Europe's Mars Express
On February 6, Mars Express orbiter transferred commands from Earth to the rover and relayed data from the robotic explorer back to Earth.

02.05.04 - Mars Exploration Rover Mission Status
NASA's Opportunity rover drove about 3.5 meters (11 feet) toward a rock outcrop in the wall of a small crater on Mars; its twin, Spirit, has successfully reformatted its flash memory

02.04.04 - Opportunity Sees Tiny Spheres in Martian Soil
NASA's Opportunity has examined its first patch of soil in the small crater where it landed and found strikingly spherical pebbles among the mix of particles there.

02.02.04 - Opportunity and Spirit Reach Out
Each of NASA's two Mars Exploration Rovers is using its versatile robotic arm for positioning tools at selected targets on the red planet.

02.01.04 - Mars Rover Spirit Restored to Health
NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit is healthy again, the result of recovery work by mission engineers since the robot developed computer-memory and communications problems 10 days ago.

01.31.04 - Opportunity Rolls onto Martian Ground
NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity drove down a reinforced fabric ramp at the front of its lander platform and onto the soil of Mars' Meridiani Planum this morning.

01.29.04 - Recovering Spirit Sends A New Picture
NASA's Spirit rover has sent a new picture to Earth, the first photo sent from Spirit since problems with communications began last week.

01.29.04 - Opportunity Begins Standing Up
NASA's Opportunity rover has untucked its front wheels and latched its suspension system in place, key steps in preparing to drive off its lander and onto martian soil.

01.27.04 - Scientists Thrilled to See Layered Rocks
New pictures from NASA's Opportunity reveal thin layers in rocks just a stone's throw from the lander platform where the rover temporarily sits.

01.25.04 - Opportunity Sits in a Small Crater

01.25.04 - First Images Of Opportunity Site Show Bizarre Landscape

01.25.04 - Opportunity Lands on Mars!
Tones from the surface of Mars show the Opportunity spacecraft has landed in Meridiani Planum, joining its twin rover Spirit on the Red Planet. Ground controllers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory erupted in cheers and applause, a replay of the celebration following Spirit's landing three weeks ago.

01.24.04 - Spirit Condition Upgraded As Twin Rover Nears Mars
Hours before NASA's Opportunity rover reaches Mars, engineers have found a way to communicate more reliably with its twin, Spirit.

01.23.04 - Rover Team Ready for Second Landing
Opportunity lands at 12:05 a.m. EST Jan. 25.

01.23.04 - Destination: Meridiani Planum
NASA's Mars rover Opportunity is scheduled to land on a Martian plain in search of evidence for water.

01.23.04 - Spirit Communicates With Earth
The flight team for NASA's Spirit received data from the rover for 20 minutes in a communication session early this morning.
"The spacecraft sent limited data in a proper response to a ground command, and we're planning for commanding further communication sessions later today," said Mars Exploration Rover Project Manager Pete Theisinger at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

01.22.04 - Mars Express Sees Water
The European Space Agency says its Mars Express orbiter has revealed the presence of water ice at the red planet's southern polar cap.

01.22.04 - Spirit Mission Status Report
Ground controllers were able to send commands to Spirit early Wednesday and received a simple signal acknowledging that the rover heard them, but they did not receive expected scientific and engineering data during scheduled communication passes during the rest of that martian day.

01.20.04 - Spirit Drives to 'Adirondack'
NASA's Spirit rover has successfully driven to its first target on Mars, a football-sized rock that scientists have dubbed Adirondack.

01.20.04 - Opportunity Closes In on Landing
With barely a week before reaching Mars, NASA's Opportunity spacecraft adjusted its trajectory, or flight path, today for the first time in four months.

01.20.04 - Spirit Flexes Its Arm
For the first time, Spirit has reached out with its versatile robotic arm and examined a patch of fine-grained martian soil with a microscope at the end of the arm.

01.16.04 - Joining Forces Around Mars
The European Space Agency's Mars Express orbiter flies almost directly over the NASA Spirit rover at Gusev Crater at an altitude of about 300 kilometres. Mars Express uses four instruments to look down, while Spirit looks up.

01.15.04 - Spirit Puts Six Wheels on Mars
NASA's Spirit rover has left its lander and is ready to start exploring the red planet.

01.13.04 - Hang a Right at the Crater
Spirit Gets a Travel Itinerary

01.12.04 - Spirit's Surroundings Beckon in Color Panorama
The first 360-degree color view from NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit presents a range of tempting targets from rocks nearby to hills on the horizon.

01.11.04 - Spirit Rover Nearly Ready to Roll
Spirit now has its arm and all six wheels free, and only a single cable must be cut before it can turn and roll off its lander onto the soil of Mars.

01.10.04 - Scientists Don't Judge a Book by its Cover
"Scientists have a crush on Mars, and it's hard not to look only for things we want to see," says Mars Exploration Rover scientist, John Grant.

01.09.04 - Spirit Stands Up, Looks Around in Infrared
Traces of carbonate minerals showed up in Spirit's first survey of the site with its infrared sensing instrument, known as Mini-TES.

01.07.04 - Rover Airbag to Get Another Tug
The engineers and scientists for NASA's Spirit are eager to get the rover off its lander and out exploring the terrain that Spirit's pictures are revealing, but caution comes first.

01.06.04 - Color Photo Most Detailed View of Mars Ever
A color mosaic from Spirit is the highest-resolution picture ever sent from Mars, more than three times as detailed as images from Mars Pathfinder in 1997.

01.06.04 - NASA Brings Mars Online
Thanks to the Internet, NASA can bring Mars into your living room, to a local Internet cafe, or anywhere else with access to the World Wide Web.

01.05.04 - Mars Team Energized about 'Sleepy Hollow'
A shallow depression in the ground near the landing site -- described as "a window into the interior of Mars" -- may become an early destination for NASA's Spirit rover.

01.04.04 - Healthy Rover Shows its New Neighborhood on Mars
The Spirit Rover is starting to examine its new surroundings, revealing a vast flatland well suited to the robot's unprecedented mobility and scientific toolkit.

01.04.04 - Pictures from Mars
NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit has already begun returning stunning pictures from Mars.