The 'Columbia Hills' in Color
This image from the panoramic camera on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit shows a forward-looking view of a portion of the "Columbia Hills." This portion features "Husband Hill" to the left, "West Spur" in the center, and a talus (rock debris) slope to the right. West Spur is Spirit's planned first stop at the hills. Husband Hill measures approximately 90 meters (295 feet) tall from the base of the hills to its highest peak. Even in this distant shot, large boulders can be seen on the hillside. These boulders are of great interest to scientists, as they may reveal clues about how these hills formed.
Based on these and past observations of the hills in comparison to hills on Earth and other celestial bodies, scientists theorize that the Columbia Hills may be one or a combination of the following: a portion of an eroded old crater rim, a wrinkle ridge, the remnants of a former interior crater deposit, a central peak or a volcano.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell
This expansive view of the martian real estate surrounding the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity is the first 360 degree, high-resolution color image taken by the rover's panoramic camera.
As Far as Opportunity's Eye Can See
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 position on March 5, ...
Rover's Progress Toward Mars Marathon, Sol 3948
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 ...
Shades of Martian Darkness
NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit has this view northward from the position at the north edge of the "Home Plate" plateau where the rover will spend its third Martian winter.
View from Spirit's Overwintering Position (False Color)
The yellow line on this map shows where NASA's Mars Rover Opportunity has driven from the place where it landed in January 2004 -- inside Eagle crater, at the upper left end of the track -- to a po...
Eagle to Endeavour: Opportunity's Path, Sol 2609
This illustration depicts some highlights along the route as NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity drove as far as a marathon race during the first 11 years and two months after its January 200...
Opportunity's Marathon Journey
The first episode documents the hurdles leading up to both launches. From Mother Nature being uncooperative to a problem with the cork insulation on the rocket, lift-off was no small feat. Ultimate...
Challenges of Getting to Mars: Two Launches: Spirit and Opportunity
NASA's twin robot geologists, the Mars Exploration Rovers, will launch toward Mars in 2003 in search of answers about the history of water on Mars. The rovers will be targeted to sites that appear ...
MER Rover Artist Concept
Some of the team members from NASA's Mars Exploration Rover project were still in college -- or even high school -- when the rovers landed in 2004. Hear their stories of becoming part of this remar...
10 Years on Mars: How Spirit & Opportunity Affected Our Lives
This image from the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity's panoramic camera shows the results of the second drilling by the rock abrasion tool, located on the rover's instrument deployment device, or...
Brushing A Mars Rock
This view from the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity's panoramic camera is a false-color composite rendering of the first seven holes that the rover's rock abrasion tool dug on the inner slope of ...
False-Color View of a 'Rat' Hole Trail
This grouping of two test rovers and a flight spare provides a graphic comparison of three generations of Mars rovers developed at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. The setting is ...
Three Generations in Mars Yard, High Viewpoint
The piece of metal with the American flag on it in this image of a NASA rover on Mars is made of aluminum recovered from the site of the World Trade Center towers in the weeks after their destruction.
Interplanetary Memorial to Victims of Sept. 11, 2001
"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...
Mars Rover Opportunity's Panorama of 'Marathon Valley'
This image from the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity's panoramic camera is an approximate true-color rendering of the exceptional rock called "Berry Bowl" in the "Eagle Crater" outcrop.
Discovery Served Up in a Bowl
With the parachute deployed, three retrorockets fire their engines, suspending the lander 30 - 50 feet above the Martian surface.
Mars Exploration Rovers: Descent Artwork
This view from within "Perseverance Valley," on the rim of Endurance Crater, includes wheel tracks from the Opportunity Mars rover's descent of the valley to investigate its origin. The rover's Pan...
View From Within 'Perseverance Valley' on Mars
A rock with a white edge and a red center reminds us of a jelly donut in a box from the local donut shop in this image taken by Opportunity on February 4, 2014. Named "pinnacle Island" by Opportun...
A Sweet Find
NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity obtained this view from the top of the "Cape Tribulation" segment of the rim of Endeavour Crater. The rover reached this point three weeks before the 11th ...
High Martian Viewpoint for 11-Year-Old Rover (False-Color Landscape)
This Aug. 15, 2014, scene from the Pancam on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity looks back toward part of the west rim of Endeavour Crater that the rover drove along, heading southward, duri...
Rover Tracks in Northward View Along West Rim of Endeavour, False Color
Results from Opportunity and Curiosity show Mars could have supported life.
Rover Fist Bump
Rover 2 is driven over staggered ramps to test the suspension's range of motion.
Mars Exploration Rovers: Rover 2 Driving Test
This full-circle panorama shows the terrain around the NASA Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity during the 3,071st Martian day, or sol, of the rover's work on Mars (Sept. 13, 2012).
Opportunity's Surroundings on Sol 3071, on 'Whitewater Lake' Outcrop
These side-by-side images were taken by the Pan Camera (Pancam) on NASA's Opportunity rover. They're actually the same image; the left version is how the image originally came down, due to data dro...
Artistic Pancam Frame
This 3-D cylindrical-perspective projection was constructed from a sequence of four images taken by the navigation camera onboard the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity. The images were acquired...
One View, Two Craters (3-D)
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