Artist's rendering of Mars Exploration Rover on surface of Mars.
NASA's twin robot geologists, the Mars Exploration Rovers, launched toward Mars on June 10 and July 7, 2003, are in search of answers about the history of water on Mars. They successfully landed on Mars on January 3 and January 24 respectively, and are currently operating on the surface of Mars.
The Mars Exploration Rover mission is part of NASA's Mars Exploration
Program, a long-term effort of robotic exploration of the red planet.
Primary among the mission's scientific goals is to search for and characterize a wide
range of rocks and soils that hold clues to past water activity on Mars. The spacecraft
are targeted to sites on opposite sides of Mars that appear to have been affected by
liquid water in the past. The landing sites are at Gusev Crater, a possible former lake in
a giant impact crater, and Meridiani Planum, where mineral deposits (hematite) suggest
Mars had a wet past.
After the airbag-protected landing craft settled onto the surface, the rovers rolled out
to take panoramic images. These images have given scientists the information they need to
select promising geological targets that will tell part of the story of water in Mars'
past.
