Mars rover Mars rover A Mars rover is a motor vehicle that propels itself across the surface of the planet Mars upon arrival. Rovers have several advantages over stationary landers: they examine more territory, and they can be directed to interesting features, they can place themselves in sunny positions to weather winter months, and they can advance the knowledge of how to perform very remote robotic vehicle control. There have been four successful robotically operated Mars rovers. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory managed the "Sojourner" rover, the "Opportunity" rover, "Spirit" rover, and, now the "Curiosity" rover. On January 24, 2016 NASA reported that
Crewed Mars rover are a component of many designs for a human mission to the planet Mars. For example, the Austere Human Missions to Mars proposal proposed including two rovers on its unmanned power and logistics cargo lander. Each rover could hold a crew of two in a pressurized environment, with power coming from a Stirling radioisotope generator. Mars One, a Mars colonization plan intended to be funded by a TV show, plans an unpressurized crewed rover capable of traveling 80 km (50 miles). They said a possible supplier was Astrobotic Technology. The Manned Mars Exploration Rover (MMER) won a design award in