The discoveries of the Mars rover mission • Earth.com

The discoveries of the Mars rover mission

02-18-2019


The discoveries of the Mars rover mission Today’s Video of the Day from NASA features the findings of the Mars rover mission from 2004 to 2019.

The exploration, which was designed to run for just 90 days. lasted for more than 15 years and provided the first definitive evidence of a history of water on Mars. The discoveries of the Mars rover mission On Jan. 6, 2005, the Opportunity rover found a basketball-size meteorite on Mars – the first meteorite ever discovered on another planet. Opportunity’s spectrometers scoped out the space rock and determined that it’s mostly made of iron and nickel.

Scientists sent Curiosity to Mars to measure lots of other things, too-including radiation. Radiation is a type of energy that can come from the sun. It travels in high-energy waves that can be harmful to living things. Curiosity found that Mars has high, dangerous levels of radiation. NASA’s Opportunity rover enters its 16th year on Mars, but it’s still dead quiet. Today, NASA is celebrating the monumental achievements of the Opportunity rover as it tallies a full 15 years on the planet Mars. Two robots that move, called rovers, are on Mars’ surface. Their names are Spirit and Opportunity. The rovers travel around taking pictures and looking at the planet’s soil and rocks. NASA uses pictures and information from the spacecraft and the rovers to learn more about Mars.

By Chrissy Sexton, Earth.com Staff Writer

Video Credit: NASA

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