NASA's newest rover recorded audio of itself crunching over the surface of the Red Planet, adding a whole new dimension to Mars exploration.
Space Exploration
Mar 18, 2021
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NASA, along with the European Space Agency, is developing a campaign to return the Martian samples to Earth.
Space Exploration
Oct 12, 2021
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To prepare for the next mission to Mars in 2020, NASA has taken to the lava fields of Iceland to get its new robotic space explorer ready for the job.
Space Exploration
Aug 14, 2019
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NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity keeps providing surprises about the Red Planet, most recently with observations of possible "rock stripes."
Space Exploration
Feb 16, 2018
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After an extensive review process and passing a major development milestone, NASA is ready to proceed with final design and construction of its next Mars rover, currently targeted to launch in summer of 2020 and arrive on ...
Space Exploration
Jul 15, 2016
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(Phys.org) -- With its daily supply of solar energy increasing, NASA's durable Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has driven off the sunward-tilted outcrop, called Greeley Haven, where it worked during its fifth Martian winter.
Space Exploration
May 9, 2012
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(PhysOrg.com) -- NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has found bright veins of a mineral, apparently gypsum, deposited by water. Analysis of the vein will help improve understanding of the history of wet environments ...
Space Exploration
Dec 8, 2011
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China's Mars rover drove from its landing platform and began exploring the surface on Saturday, state-run Xinhua news agency said, making the country only the second nation to land and operate a rover on the Red Planet.
Space Exploration
May 22, 2021
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After completing two drives this week, NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has paused to photograph the panoramic vista from the highest point the rover has reached during its 40 months of exploring the western rim ...
Space Exploration
Jan 9, 2015
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(PhysOrg.com) -- NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has captured new images of intriguing Martian terrain from a small crater near the rim of the large Endeavour crater. The rover arrived at the 13-mile-diameter (21-kilometer-diameter) ...
Space Exploration
Aug 22, 2011
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NASA's Mars Exploration Rover (MER) Mission is an ongoing robotic mission of exploring Mars, that began in 2003 with the sending of two rovers — MER-A Spirit and MER-B Opportunity — to explore the Martian surface and geology.
Primary among the mission's scientific objectives is to search for and characterize a wide range of rocks and soils that hold clues to past water activity on Mars. The mission is part of NASA's Mars Exploration Program which includes three previous successful landers: the two Viking landers in 1976 and Pathfinder in 1997.
The total cost of building, launching, landing and operating the rovers on the surface for the initial 90 Martian-day primary mission was US$820 million. Since the rovers have continued to function for over five years after landing they have received five mission extensions with the fifth mission extension, which was granted in October 2007, being until the end of 2009. The total cost of the first four mission extensions was $104 million and the fifth mission extension is expected to cost at least $20 million. In July 2007, Martian dust storms blocked sunlight to the rovers and threatened the ability of the craft to gather energy through their solar panels, causing engineers to fear that one or both of them might be permanently disabled. However, the dust storms lifted, allowing them to resume operations.
In recognition of the vast amount of scientific information amassed by both rovers, two asteroids have been named in their honor: 37452 Spirit and 39382 Opportunity.
The mission is managed for NASA by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which designed, built and is operating the rovers.
This text uses material from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA
