One of our very talented interns (Nolan) put together this overview of the various Martian Rovers. This is a nice level of detail, but when you eventually play MarsVR, this information may well be critical to your success - nudge nudge wink wink!
Rovers that took Soil Samples:
Curiosity
Perseverance
Opportunity (and Spirit)
Rovers that measured Air Quality:
Curiosity
Perseverance – doesn’t test air quality but has tool called MOXIE that test a method to turn Martian carbon dioxide into oxygen
Rovers that checked Humidity/water:
Curiosity
Opportunity
More in-depth details of mission objectives
Curiosity:
Acquires rock, soil, and air samples
Analyze the chemical fingerprints in different rock and soil samples to determine their composition and history (including history of interactions with water)
Opportunity (and Spirit)
Search for and characterize a wide range of rocks and soil samples for past water activity
Targeted sites that seemed to have been affected by liquid water in the past
InSight:
Studies and explores the cores, mantle, and crust of Mars
Answer questions about early formation of rocky planets in inner solar system as well as rocky exoplanets
Measures current tectonic activity and meteorite impacts
More concise explanation:
Seeks to discover how rocky bodies form and evolve to become planets by investigating interior structures and composition of Mars
Determines the rate of Martian tectonic activity
Measures meteorite activity
Perseverance:
Search for signs of ancient microbial life
Stores samples to be picked up and returned to Earth by future missions
Test’s technology to help future human exploration of Mars
Test’s methods to produce oxygen from Martian carbon dioxide
Identifying other resources including subsurface water
Improving landing techniques
Characterizing weather, dust, and other potential environmental conditions that could affect future astronauts living and working on Mars.
Hint: if you are playing the game, this level of information might be critical to you completing the missions ;)
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