My kitty, Keelor, is still going strong at 17 (knock on wood). He came from a litter of four, one of whom died when he was only a few months old. His sister was euthanized just last year at 16, but his other brother died at a relatively young age (around 10, if I remember correctly) from necrotizing pancreatitis.
X-band radio waves used by the rover to communicate. The rover communicates with the orbiters and the DSN through radio waves. They communicate with each other through X-band, which are radio waves at a much higher frequency than radio waves used for FM stations. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech.
This article is about the mission that launched in 2003. For the Mars rover that landed in 2012, see Curiosity (rover). For the generic topic, see Mars rover. NASA's Mars Exploration Rover (MER) mission is an ongoing robotic space mission involving two Mars rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, exploring the planet Mars. It began in 2003 with the sending of the two rovers: MER-A Spirit and MER-B Opportunityâto explore the Martian surface and geology.