Mars Exploration Program various components of the EDL systems on Earth-based testing. However, the costs of reproducing environments in which this data would be relevant in terms of Mars' environment are considerably high, resulting in testing being purely ground-based or simulating results of tests involving technologies derived from past missions. InSight, launched from Earth May 5, 2018, the lander touched down on Mars November 26, 2018 on Elysium Planitia. Mars exploration missions, as do most NASA missions, can be fairly costly. For example, NASA's "Curiosity" rover (landed on Mars in Aug 2012) has a budget exceeding $2.5 billion. NASA also has goals of
Opportunity mission timeline may clear the dust from its solar panels, as it has happened before. Some of the craters MER-B has investigated Some excitement from finding meteorites, new types of rock or signatures detected from orbit, and speculations on ancient alien fossils which as of yet lean towards geological processes. "Examples" Some other famous targets are the "blueberries" (2004) and "newberries", aka Kirkwood spheres (2012) See also List of rocks on Mars#Opportunity and List of surface features of Mars imaged by "Opportunity" Opportunity mission timeline Opportunity, MER-B (Mars Exploration Rover – B), is a robotic rover active on the planet Mars since