Mars rover news stories on Newser

Mars Rover Moves for 1st Time in 5 Months

Thu, 10 May 2012 09:20:44 CDT

The Mars rover Opportunity is on the go again. After spending nearly five months conducting experiments in one spot, the NASA rover moved for the first time this week, rolling off the rock outcrop where it hunkered down for the Martian winter. The mission team received confirmation late Tuesday that...

Mars Rover 'Curiosity' Launches

Sat, 26 Nov 2011 09:09:43 CST

The world's biggest extraterrestrial explorer is on its way to Mars. NASA today launched the six-wheeled, one-armed robotic rover, nicknamed Curiosity. An unmanned rocket blasted off with the spacecraft from Cape Canaveral. The journey to Mars will take 8 1/2 months and cover 354 million miles. Thousands of NASA guests...

NASA Preps Biggest-Ever Mars Rover

Matt Cantor — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 09:10:45 CST

It’s “a Mars scientist's dream machine”: NASA is getting ready to launch its largest-ever Mars rover on Saturday. It’s not just big—it’s “the largest and most complex piece of equipment ever placed on the surface of another planet,” the agency’s Mars boss tells the AP . Curiosity, as the 7-foot-high...

New Mars Sample Astounds Scientists, Hints at Water

Kevin Spak — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 13:46:05 CDT

Scientists are marveling over the latest discovery by the Mars rover Opportunity, which seems to suggest that the red planet may be more hospitable to life than previously believed. The venerable robot—now 7.5 years into its exploration of the planet—has found a lighter-colored rock that “is different...

US, EU May Launch Single Mars Rover

Rob Quinn — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 01:42:00 CDT

American and European space agencies trying to reconcile their Mars ambitions with their budgets are stepping up cooperation. NASA and ESA had planned to send two rovers to Mars for a tandem mission in 2018, but they're now considering combining functions and sending a single rover. America's Max-C rover is...

Mars Rover Goes Missing

Emily Rauhala — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 05:30:00 CDT

The Mars rover is MIA. The machine has failed to make a scheduled communication with the Mars Odyssey spacecraft, and NASA officials are speculating that the aging Spirit may have gone into power-saving "hibernation" mode to survive the red planet's winter. "We may not hear from Spirit again for weeks...

Mars Rover Will Rove No More

Nick McMaster — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 17:15:41 CST

NASA has given up on trying to get the Spirit rover out of the Martian sand trap it's been stuck in since May. Calling the rover's position "a golfer's worst nightmare," engineers are now focused on simply helping the rover to survive the Martian winter. If it does, Spirit could...

NASA Will Try to Free Rover Stuck on Mars

Nick McMaster — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 17:37:58 CST

Help is on the way, rover. NASA will attempt to free the Mars rover Spirit from its sand-trap prison on Monday. The plucky machine got stuck in April—“the equivalent of falling through the ice over a frozen pond," says a NASA official. Spirit has been exploring Mars for 6...

NASA Rover on Strike

Peter Fearon — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 03:49:10 CST

NASA engineers are perplexed by a rebellious streak that has developed in its Martian roving robot, Spirit. It was expected to last just 90 days when it landed on Mars five years ago, but the robot has continued to send back data. This past weekend, however, Spirit failed to report...