Mars Exploration Rover team members with rover

In the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility, technicians remove one of the circuit boards on the Mars Exploration Rover 2 (MER-2).

The pointy features, dubbed "Razorback," in this image may only be a few centimeters high but they generate major scientific interest.

This map updates progress that NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity is making toward reaching a driving distance equivalent to a marathon footrace. It indicates the rover's position on March 2...

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...

This image highlights the bumpy terrain surrounding the rover.

Details of the Gusev Crater designated landing site are added with topographic information and higher-resolution imaging from instruments on the Mars Global Surveyor and Mars Odyssey orbiters.

This full-circle, stereo panorama shows the terrain around the NASA Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity during the 3,105th Martian day, or sol, of the rover's work on Mars (Oct. 18, 2012).

With the parachute deployed, three retrorockets fire their engines, suspending the lander 30 - 50 feet above the Martian surface.

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...

This blink comparison aids evaluation of a drive by NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit during the rover's 2,099th Martian day, or sol (Nov. 28, 2009).

So, you want to study Mars with a lander or rover - but where exactly do you send it? Learn how scientists and engineers tackle this question in this 60-second video from NASA's Jet Propulsion Labo...

On the 3,309th Martian day, or sol, of its mission on Mars (May 15, 2013) NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity drove 263 feet (80 meters) southward along the western rim of Endeavour Crater.

As Opportunity crept farther into "Endurance Crater," the dune field on the crater floor appeared even more dramatic.

This image shows segments of the western rim of Mars' Endeavour Crater. NASA's Mars rover Opportunity has explored parts of the rim since 2011. The view covers an area about 9 miles wide. It was ta...

The component images for this stereo, 360-degree panorama were taken by the navigation camera on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity after the rover drove about 97 feet (29.5 meters) during t...

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.

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

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

This image from Opportunity's panoramic camera features the remains of the heat shield that protected the rover from temperatures of up to 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit as it made its way through the ma...

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.

A round of applause at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, for a successful end to the mission of NASA's Opportunity Mars rover on Feb. 13, 2019.

On Earth, a fast runner takes a few hours to complete a marathon. On Mars, it's taken 11 years. NASA's Opportunity rover crossed that finish line in 2015.

This panoramic image, dubbed "Rub al Khali," was taken by Opportunity on the plains of Meridiani during the rover's 456th to 464th sols on Mars.

In February 2015, NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity is approaching a cumulative driving distance on Mars equal to the length of a marathon race. This map shows the rover's position relative...

These images of a sand "ripple" were acquired by Opportunity using its panoramic camera on sol 644 and its navigation camera on sol 645.