Space Robots & Rovers

Mars is too far and too harsh for people to visit yet. So we send robots. The Curiosity rover landed in 2012. It is the size of a small car, with six wheels, a laser, a drill, and a laboratory inside. It drives across Gale Crater, climbing Mount Sharp. It zaps rocks with its laser to read their chemistry. It drills powder from rocks and analyses it. Curiosity found that Mars once had lakes and streams with water that was not too salty or too acidic. Conditions where microbes could have lived.

Perseverance landed in 2021 in Jezero Crater, an ancient river delta. It carries 23 cameras, a helicopter called Ingenuity, and instruments to search for signs of past life. It collects rock cores that a future mission will bring back to Earth. Ingenuity made the first powered flights on another planet. Together, the rover and helicopter explore farther and faster. Earlier rovers: Sojourner, Spirit, Opportunity, proved we can drive on Mars. Each new rover is smarter and more capable.

Robots go where humans cannot. Deep ocean, deep space, inside volcanoes, under ice sheets. Mars rovers are like remote-controlled cars with a 20-minute delay each way. Drivers on Earth plan each move, send the commands, and wait for the result. The rovers have hazard cameras and software to avoid cliffs and sand traps. They move slowly, a few metres per day, but they work for years.