MarsVR: Rover Knowledge

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 ;)