Mars Exploration Rover team members with rover

This synthetic image of NASA's Opportunity Mars Exploration Rover inside Endurance Crater was produced using "Virtual Presence in Space" technology.

The deck of NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit is so dusty that the rover almost blends into the dusty background in this image assembled from frames taken by the panoramic camera (Pancam) during...

Scientists and engineers working on NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover mission gather for a team portrait during the rovers’ prime mission on Mars in 2004 at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena...

NASA's Mars rover Opportunity edged 3.7 meters (12 feet) closer to the top of the "Duck Bay" alcove along the rim of "Victoria Crater" during the rover's 952nd Martian day, or sol (overnight Sept. ...

"Marathon Valley" on Mars opens to a view across Endeavour Crater in this enhanced-color version of a scene from the Pancam of NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity. The scene merges many expos...

This three-dimensional anaglyph stereo view was created from navigation camera frames that NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity acquired at about 4:05 p.m., local solar time on Mars, on sol 10...

Two spacecraft engineers join a grouping of vehicles providing a comparison of three generations of Mars rovers developed at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. The setting is JPL's ...

Stowed in the nose cone of this Delta II rocket, the Mars Exploration Rover blasts off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. It's destination: the planet Mars.

This 3-D image combines computer-generated models of the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit and its lander with real surface data from the rover's panoramic camera. It shows Spirit's position just after...

The left image shows an extreme close-up of round, blueberry-shaped formations in the martian soil near a part of the rock outcrop at Meridiani Planum called Stone Mountain.

This infographic highlights NASA’s twin robot geologists, the Mars Exploration Rovers (MER) Spirit and Opportunity.  The rovers landed on the Red Planet in 2004, in search of answers about the hist...

The second Mars Exploration Rover, Opportunity, was the first NASA mission lifted on what is referred to as a Delta II "heavy" rocket.

As NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity creeps farther into "Endurance Crater," the dune field on the crater floor appears even more dramatic

Road trip! This compilation of images from hazard-avoidance cameras on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity between January 2004 and April 2015 shows the rover's-eye-view of the Martian marath...

The rock abrasion tool on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit ground two holes in a relatively soft rock called "Wooly Patch" near the base of the "Columbia Hills" inside Gusev Crater on Mars.

This synthetic image of the Spirit Mars Exploration Rover in the "Columbia Hills" was produced using "Virtual Presence in Space" technology.

NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit captured this westward view from atop a low plateau where Sprit spent the closing months of 2007.

The nose cone of the rocket separates during the launch phase and the Mars Exploration Rover is sent on a seven-month journey to Mars.

Gazing across the landscape of the "Columbia Hills" in Gusev Crater on Mars, scientists saw hints of tilted rock layers across the area traversed by the Spirit rover.

This series of images shows simulated views of a darkening Martian sky blotting out the Sun from NASA’s Opportunity rover’s point of view, with the right side simulating Opportunity’s current view ...

How can you communicate with Mars spacecraft when the Sun is in the way? Learn more about 'solar conjunction' in this 60-second video.

The "Lion King" panorama was the largest panorama obtained by either rover in 2004.

"Marathon Valley" on Mars opens to a view across Endeavour Crater in this scene from the Pancam of NASA's Mars rover Opportunity. The scene merges many exposures taken during April and May 2016. Th...

While driving eastward toward the northwestern flank of "McCool Hill," Spirit's wheels churned up the largest amount of bright soil discovered to that point in the mission. This image from Spirit's...

NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity captured this stereo view after beginning to ascend the northwestern slope of "Solander Point" on the western rim of Endeavour Crater.