While roboticists have developed increasingly sophisticated systems over the past decades, ensuring that these systems can autonomously operate in real-world settings without mishaps often proves challenging. This is particularly ...
Mars's surface is covered in all manner of scratches and scars. Its many marks include the fingernail scratches of Tantalus Fossae, the colossal canyon system of Valles Marineris, the oddly orderly ridges of Angustus Labyrinthus, ...
Planetary Sciences
May 30, 2024
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In the months ahead, two of NASA's Mars spacecraft will have an unprecedented opportunity to study how solar flares—giant explosions on the sun's surface—could affect robots and future astronauts on the Red Planet.
Planetary Sciences
Apr 29, 2024
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NASA recently announced that it is seeking new ways to complete the return to Earth of rock cores drilled by the Perseverance Rover in the Jezero Crater on Mars. This has led to some anxiety among space scientists, who view ...
Space Exploration
Apr 23, 2024
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Is or was there life on Mars? That profound question is so complex that it will not be fully answered by the two NASA rovers now exploring it.
Astrobiology
Mar 12, 2024
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Just about every day we here on Earth get a breathtaking picture of Mars's terrain sent back by a rover. But, the view from space can be pretty amazing, too. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) just sent back a thought-provoking ...
Planetary Sciences
Mar 4, 2024
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As it trundles around an ancient lakebed on Mars, NASA's Perseverance rover is assembling a one-of-a-kind rock collection. The car-sized explorer is methodically drilling into the Red Planet's surface and pulling out cores ...
Planetary Sciences
Mar 4, 2024
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A complex project aimed at retrieving rock and dirt samples from Mars has long been a top priority for NASA, with proponents arguing the mission could answer the age-old question of whether life once existed on the red planet.
Space Exploration
Feb 18, 2024
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This month marks the 20th anniversary of Spirit and Opportunity's landing on Mars, part of a mission whose legacy will extend far into the future.
Planetary Sciences
Jan 17, 2024
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Four thousand Martian days after setting its wheels in Gale Crater on Aug. 5, 2012, NASA's Curiosity rover remains busy conducting exciting science. The rover recently drilled its 39th sample, then dropped the pulverized ...
Planetary Sciences
Nov 6, 2023
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A Mars rover is a spacecraft which propels itself across the surface of Mars after landing.
Rovers have several advantages over stationary landers: they examine more territory, they can be directed to interesting features, they can place themselves in sunny positions to weather winter months and they can advance the knowledge of how to perform very remote robotic vehicle control.
Their advantages over orbiting spacecraft are that they can make observations to a microscopic level and can conduct physical experimentation. Disadvantages of rovers compared to orbiters are the higher chance of failure, due to landing and other risks, and that they are limited to a small area around a landing site which itself is only approximately anticipated.
There have been three successful Mars rovers, all of which were robotically operated. (There have also been two successful non-Martian robotic rovers: in the 1970s the USSR sent two Lunokhod rovers to the Moon.)
This text uses material from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA
