Spirit Rover Remains Silent as Mars Mission Begins 8th Year
NASA's mired Spirit rover remains in a nine-month slumber as it begins the eighth year of its Mars mission, but its twin, Opportunity, keeps chugging along. Full story
Wanted: A solar space robot that roves by night
NASA is getting serious about its latest challenge to space-minded engineers: Design a solar-powered night rover for exploring other worlds. Full story
NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter suffers glitch
The veteran Mars Odyssey satellite has switched itself into "safe mode" after detecting a problem with an electronic encoder responsible for controlling the orientation of the spacecraft's solar array. Full story
Greatest hits from Mars rovers
A year’s worth of highlights from NASA’s Spirit and Opportunity robots
Search for alien life may take giant leap forward
Space.com: Scientists haven't found E.T. just yet, but they may be pinning down the best places and ways to look for alien life during space missions, NASA researchers say. Full story
NASA to begin escape attempt for Mars rover
The effort to free the Spirit rover will begin in earnest today, when engineers send the first escape commands to the stuck robot to try to move out of its trap late tonight. Full story
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John Callas
John Callas, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, is manager of the Mars Exploration Rover project. MER involves the Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity, which have been chugging around the Red Planet since 2004.
NASA Mars rover
NASA's twin Mars rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, are set to mark the passage of a big milestone — seven years on the surface of Mars.
Mars rover
Artist's conception of Mars Exploration Rover
Mars Exploration Rover
NASA's Mars Exploration Rovers began operations on the Red Planet's surface in 2004.
Above, a digital model of the Opportunity rover was added to a real image of the inside of Endurance Crater on Mars taken earlier by Opportunity itself. The size of the six-wheeled robot was scaled to the size of the tracks that the Opportunity rover actually created. Credit: Mars Exploration Rover
Above, a digital model of the Opportunity rover was added to a real image of the inside of Endurance Crater on Mars taken earlier by Opportunity itself. The size of the six-wheeled robot was scaled to the size of the tracks that the Opportunity rover actually created. Credit: Mars Exploration Rover
Mars Sojourner
NASA's Mars Sojourner rover, part of the Mars Pathfinder mission, was the first robotic rover to roll on the Red Planet. Millions of Web surfers clicked along as it checked out rocks with cartoon-character names such as Scooby Doo, Barnacle Bill and Yogi. The investigations conducted by the "first i
