Red PlanetMARS

NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Mission (MER) is an ongoing robotic space mission

involving rovers Spirit, Opportunity and now Curiosity, exploring the planet Mars. It began in 2003 with the sending of the two rovers,

Spirit and Opportunity, to explore the Martian surface and geology and continues

today.

The mission’s scientific objective was 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 program landers in 1976 and

Mars Pathfinder probe in 1997.

An image taken by the Mars rover Opportunity shows a bizarre, lumpy rock informally named Wopmay on the lower slopes of Endurance Crater. Scientists believe the lumps in Wopmay

were formed by one of two processes. Either they were caused by the impact that created the football field-sized crater, or they arose when water soaking the rock dried up, said the

scientists.

Martian sand dunes are seen in this image taken by NASA's Mars Rover Opportunity. The dunes in the foreground are approximately 3

feet (1 meter) high.

This image mosaic taken by the panoramic camera on board the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit shows the rover's landing site, the Columbia

Memorial Station, at Gusev Crater, Mars.

In this photo released by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA's Mars rover Spirit looks out over red slopes, valleys, plains and its

own wheel tracks in this 360-degree panorama. Spirit and its twin rover Opportunity have found evidence of past water

activity on the Red Planet since landing in January 2004.

Gusev Crater - the landscape shows little variation in local topography, though a narrow peak only seven to eight kilometers away is visible

on the horizon. A circular depression, similar to the one dubbed Sleepy Hollow, can be seen in the foreground.

Color Panorama of 'Santa Maria' Crater for Opportunity's Anniversary NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity is spending the seventh anniversary of its landing on Mars investigating a crater called "Santa

Maria," which has a diameter about the length of a football field.

Opportunity's Eighth Anniversary View From 'Greeley Haven' (False Color). This mosaic of images taken in mid-January 2012 shows the windswept vista northward (left) to northeastward (right) from the

location where NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity is spending its fifth Martian winter, an outcrop informally named

"Greeley Haven."

In this photo released by NASA, a view of Victoria crater is seen looking north from "Duck Bay" towards the dramatic promontory

called "Cape Verde."

"Intrepid" crater on Mars carries the name of the lunar module of NASA's Apollo 12 mission, which landed on Earth's moon Nov. 19,

1969.

East Hills - The hills are the most promising place to find the geologic evidence Spirit was sent to find -that the frozen, dry planet once was a warmer, wetter world capable of supporting life. NASA plans to send

the rover towards the hills, which are at a distance of about five times Spirit's maximum driving range, meaning the rover could die on the

way unless it far outlives.

This true color image taken by the panoramic camera onboard the Mars rover

Spirit shows "Adirondack," the rover's first target rock.

This crater -- with a diameter of about 14 miles (22 kilometers) -- is more than 25 times wider than any that Opportunity has previously

approached during the rover's 90 months on Mars.

The Mars rover's microscopic imager found these

intriguing round pebbles.

This approximate true-color image taken by the panoramic camera on the Mars Exploration rover Opportunity shows the impact crater known as "Endurance," in this photo released by NASA May 6, 2004.

NASA's Mars Exploration rover Spirit used its panoramic camera to take the images that make up this full-resolution

mosaic of the "Columbia Hills," on Mars.

This true color image shows "sashimi," left, and "sushi," right, enroute the rover's first target rock (not shown).

This composite photo released by NASA was created by combining hundreds of images taken by the panoramic camera on NASA's Mars

Exploration rover Spirit between Aug. 24 and Aug. 27, 2005 into a 360-degree view called "Husband Hill Summit." Part of the rover's deck is

seen in the foreground.

The rover captured this false color view of a dark boulder with an interesting surface

texture. The boulder sits about 40 centimeters (16 inches) tall

on Martian sand about 5 meters (16 feet) away from

Spirit. It is one of many dark, volcanic rock fragments --

many pocked with rounded holes called vesicles -- littering the slope of "Low Ridge." The rock surface facing the rover is

similar in appearance to the surface texture on the outside

of lava flows on Earth.

In this photo made by the Mars rover Opportunity and released in this Oct. 2006 file photo, by NASA shows a view of the "Victoria crater"

looking southeast from "Duck Bay." A newly discovered asteroid has a 1 in 75 chance of slamming into the Red Planet on Jan. 30, 2008,

scientists said Thursday, Dec. 20, 2007.

In the center of this photo is the large volcanic rock nicknamed Mazatzal in which the NASA/JPL Mars rover Spirit found traces of water that had flowed through tiny fissures that crisscrossed the boulder and cemented together the multiple layers that mask its surface.

Mars Rover

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Fotos: AP Photo NASA Music: Timeless in Space

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