Colonizing Mars is the “next logical step” in human space exploration – as astronaut Chris Handfield once put it – after stepping on the Moon, an achievement achieved more than half a century ago. In 2020, a series of missions are in the works to explore the red planet, hoping to pave the way for a future human settlement. The Artemis project, which plans to send manned spacecraft back to the Moon, is nothing more than a bridge to bring the first humans to Mars. And not only NASA and ESA are preparing for it, but so are countries like the United Arab Emirates or Japan.
But the objective of these missions is, beyond colonizing Mars one day, what we have been doing for decades: studying our neighboring planet to see if it could have been habitable in the past, or if it still can be.
The discovery of water on Mars in 2008 was one of the most important milestones in Martian exploration, and we owe it all to the explorers we have sent there, even if they are not human. For now there are five; The most recent of these, the Perseverance rover, launched on July 30, 2020, has just touched down on Martian soil.
All these artificial heroes will go down in history as some of the most famous robots. We do a review of all the rovers that NASA has sent to Mars so far.
Sojourner (1997)
About the size of a microwave oven, the Sojourner was the first rover sent by humanity to Mars, in 1997; an unprecedented feat for the time. It was launched on December 6, 96 and landed on July 4, 97 on our neighboring planet thanks to a spacecraft in the shape of a pyramid and covered with airbags: the Mars Pathfinder, later renamed Carl Sagan Memorial Station. The airbags helped the lander to land safely and agilely, while the pyramidal shape helped ensure that the lander and rover could get up, even if they capsized during landing. The rover was covered in solar panels, which it used as a battery.
The rover explored an area of Mars near its landing site called Ares Vallis, which looked like the location of an ancient flood, and was thus able to study a wide variety of rocks, formed by sedimentation. After sending some 500 images to Earth, the mission ended 83 Martian days (85 Earth days) later.
Opportunity (2004 – 2019)
It is the longest-lived rover, the one that has been on the surface of Mars the longest, and the one that has contributed the most valuable information to the scientific community about its characteristics. Among his achievements, he highlights that he found the definitive proof that there was water on Mars in the past; In addition, it made important geological discoveries on the planet and sent more than two hundred thousand images to Earth.
Oppy exceeded his life expectancy by more than 60 times, but nothing lasts forever. After being rocked by a storm in the summer of 2018, the rover was covered in dust, unable to recharge its solar batteries, and was idle for months. Finally, in February 2019, NASA ended the mission. Now he rests in the Valley of Perserverance , a poetic name for this famous robot, who never gave up.
Spirit (2004 – 2011)
Built as a twin to Opportunity, Spirit reached the red planet at the same time as its brother, but in opposite places, in order to find clues as to whether or not Mars is a habitable planet. After landing in January 2004, Spirit sent the first color photos taken by a rover on another planet. Like Opportunity, it also found several signs of water in the past, and evidence of volcanic activity.
No communication had been received from Spirit since March 22, 2010, so the project concluded Spirit’s recovery efforts on May 25, 2011.
Curiosity (2012 – present)
The Curiosity rover from the Mars Science Laboratory mission landed in Gale Crater on Mars on the night of August 5-6, 2012 using a series of complicated landing maneuvers never before practiced.
Curiosity’s mission is, again, to determine whether the red planet was or is ever habitable for microbial life. The rover, which is about the size of a Mini Cooper, is equipped with 17 cameras and a robotic arm that contains a set of specialized tools and instruments similar to those in a laboratory.
The mission is currently active. Curiosity has been scanning the surface of Mars for eight years , and sending images back to Earth. It is the only one of the rovers that remains operational (except for Perseverance, which is on its way to the red planet at the moment).
Perseverance (2020 – present)
On July 30, 2020, at 1:50 p.m., NASA launched its fifth Martian exploration rover coupled to the Atlas V rocket. The instrument measures 3 meters long, 2.7 meters wide and weighs 1,043 kilos.
The Perseverance rover successfully landed on the surface of Mars on Thursday, February 18, in Jezero crater. It has traveled almost 470 million kilometers of space travel. Its objective? The search for traces of past life.
It is the most technologically advanced rover ever , designed to roam the Martian surface, extract clues as to whether life could have existed in the past, capture high-quality audio and video, and collect rocks and soil samples.
Other missions
Although these are not rovers, it is worth mentioning other artifacts that are exploring Mars at the moment, such as the InSight mission, which landed on November 26, 2018 to investigate what is under the surface of Mars and find out the keys to its early training; the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter probe, which has been in orbit for 14 years; and the MAVEN probe , which has succeeded in creating a map of electrical currents of the Martian atmosphere after five years orbiting the planet.
