Mars Photos From Rovers Spirit & Opportunity

West Rim of Endeavour Crater on MarsCredit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell/ASUA portion of the west rim of Endeavour crater sweeps southward in this color view from NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity. This crater — with a diameter of about 14 miles (22 kilometers) — is more than 25 times wider than any that Opportunity has previously approached during the rover's 90 months on Mars.

 

Opportunity's View Approaching Rim of EndeavourCredit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell/ASU NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity used its panoramic camera (Pancam) to capture this view of a portion of Endeavour crater's rim after a drive during the rover's 2,676th Martian day, or sol, of working on Mars (Aug. 4, 2011). The drive covered 396 feet (120.7 meters) and put the rover with about that much distance to go before reaching the chosen arrival site at the rim, called "Spirit Point."

 

Opportunity Rover Headed Toward Spirit Point at Endeavour Crater on MarsCredit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSSThe yellow line on this map shows where NASA's Mars rover Opportunity has driven, as of June 2011, after landing on Mars in January 2004.

 

Opportunity Rover Travels 20 Miles on MarsCredit: NASA/JPL-CaltechNASA's Mars rover Opportunity took this photo on July 17, 2011. On that day, the rover completed a drive that took its total driving distance on Mars past 20 miles.

 

Over YouCredit: NASA/JPL/UASpirit and Opportunity, the Mars rovers, have outlived and outlasted any spacecraft on the surface of the red planet. Take a look at some of their latest Mars photos. NASA's Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity have been exploring Mars for more than six years

 

Mars rover Opportunity rests by Santa Maria craterCredit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of ArizonaNASA's Mars rover Opportunity rests at the southeast rim of Santa Maria crater. NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter snapped this photo on March 1, 2011.

 

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NASA's Next Mars Rover Hoisted Atop Rocket

NASA's next Mars rover has been placed atop the rocket that will launch it toward the Red Planet three weeks from now, officials announced today (Nov. 3).

Technicians hoisted the car-size Curiosity rover — the centerpiece of NASA's $2.5 billion Mars Science Laboratory mission — atop its Atlas 5 rocket early Thursday morning at Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Rocket and rover are slated to blast off Nov. 25.

Curiosity had been at a servicing facility at NASA's nearby Kennedy Space Center. In Thursday's predawn hours, a heavy-duty transporter vehicle rolled the rover, encapsulated in its payload fairing, to Cape Canaveral's Space Launch Complex 41, where the Atlas 5 awaited.

Curiosity should arrive at Mars in August 2012. It will touch down at a huge crater called Gale after an unprecedented landing that employs parachutes and a rocket-powered "sky crane" that will lower the heavy rover down to the surface on cables.

The rover will then explore Gale and the strange 3-mile-high (5-kilometer) mountain that rises from its center, looking for any clues that the Red Planet is, or ever was, capable of supporting microbial life.

The rover has 10 science instruments to help it assess Mars' past and present habitability, including gear that could detect organic compounds, the building blocks of life as we know it.

Curiosity's mission is slated to last about two Earth years, but it wouldn't be a shock if the robot outlasted its warranty. NASA's Opportunity rover, after all, is still chugging around Mars, nearly eight years after it landed on the Red Planet.

You can follow SPACE.com senior writer Mike Wall on Twitter: @michaeldwall. Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter @Spacedotcomand on Facebook.

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