Mars Exploration Rover Mission
The Mars Exploration Rover mission is part of NASA's Mars Exploration Program, a long-term effort of robotic exploration of the red planet. Primary among the mission's scientific goals is to search for and characterize a wide range of rocks and soils that hold clues to past water activity on Mars.

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Back in Action Photo courtesy of NASA/JPL/Cornell This image shows the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit's "hand," or the tip of the instrument deployment device, poised in front of the rock nicknamed Adirondack. The image was taken by the rover's panoramic camera.

Spirit's Destination Photo courtesy of NASA/JPL/Cornell This image, cropped from a larger panoramic image mosaic taken by the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit panoramic camera, shows the rover's destination toward the hills nicknamed the "Columbia Hills." This image was taken on sols 68 and 69 of Spirit's mission (March 12 and 13, 2004) from the location the rover first reached on the western rim of the crater. The image is in approximate true color, based on a scaling of data from the red, green and blue (750 nanometers, 530 nanometers, and 480 nanometers) filters.

The Call of the Dark Rocks Photo Courtesy of NASA/JPL/Cornell This false-color image taken by the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit shows a group of darker rocks dubbed "Toltecs," lying to the southeast of the rover's current position. The rocks are believed to be basaltic, or volcanic, in composition because their color and spectral properties resemble those of basaltic rocks studied so far at Gusev Crater. This image was taken by the 750-, 530- and 430-nanometer filters of rover's panoramic camera on sol 220 (Aug. 15, 2004).

'Clovis' in Color Photo courtesy of NASA/JPL/Cornell This approximate true-color image taken by the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit shows the rock outcrop dubbed "Clovis." The rock was discovered to be softer than other rocks studied so far at Gusev Crater. This image was taken by the 750-, 530- and 480-nanometer filters of the rover's panoramic camera on sol 217(Aug. 13, 2004).

The Call of the Dark Rocks (true-color) Photo courtesy of NASA/JPL/Cornell This approximate true-color rendering from NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit shows a set of darker rocks dubbed "Toltecs" lying southeast of the rover's current position. This image was taken with the panoramic camera's 600-, 530-, and 480-nanometer filters on sol 220 (Aug. 15, 2004).

'Endurance' Courtesy of Mars Express Photo courtesy of NASA/JPL/Cornell NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity used its panoramic camera to capture this false-color image of the interior of "Endurance Crater" on the rover's 188th martian day (Aug. 4, 2004). The image data were relayed to Earth by the European Space Agency's Mars Express orbiter. The image was generated from separate frames using the cameras 750-, 530- and 480-nanometer filters.