Latest Rover Stories

Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com A challenge that ESA set out to have an engineering team create a rover that could steer itself in a Martian desert has finally been met. After six months, engineers on the StarTiger team created a fully autonomous vehicle capable of charting its own course through Chile's Atacama Desert. “Their challenge was to demonstrate how a planetary rover – programmed with state-of-the-art software for autonomous navigation and making decisions – could...

WASHINGTON, June 11, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA has narrowed the target for its most advanced Mars rover, Curiosity, which will land on the Red Planet in August. The car-sized rover will arrive closer to its ultimate destination for science operations, but also closer to the foot of a mountain slope that poses a landing hazard. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) "We're trimming the distance we'll have to drive after landing by almost half," said...

Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com NASA has trimmed down the distance that its new Mars rover will have to drive by getting Curiosity closer to its target spot after landing. The space agency announced on Monday that it has cut down the distance the car-sized rover will drive by almost half. The new landing spot gets Curiosity closer to the foot of a mountain slope that poses a landing hazard, while at the same time getting the rover months ahead of schedule for arrival at the mountain....

WASHINGTON, June 7, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA will host a media teleconference at noon EDT, June 11, to provide a status update on the Aug. 5, 2012, landing of the most advanced rover ever to be sent to Mars. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) NASA's Curiosity rover, carried by the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) spacecraft, will land near the Martian equator at approximately 10:31 p.m. PDT, Aug. 5, (1:31 a.m. EDT, Aug. 6). Panelists...

Lee Rannals for RedOrbit.com North Carolina State University researchers are proposing that a wind-driven "tumbleweed" Mars rover would be capable of moving across the Red Planet's rocky terrain. The scientists developed a computer model to determine how varying the diameter and mass of a tumbleweed rover would affect its speed and ability to avoid getting stuck in Martian rock fields, which are common on the surface of the planet. “We found that, in general, the larger the...

Like a tourist waiting for just the right lighting to snap a favorite shot during a stay at the Grand Canyon, NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has used a low sun angle for a memorable view of a large Martian crater. The resulting view catches a shadow of the rover in the foreground and the giant basin in the distance. Opportunity is perched on the western rim of Endeavour Crater looking eastward. The crater spans about 14 miles (22 kilometers) in diameter. Opportunity has been...

Land Rover Roaring Fork of Glenwood Springs, CO is offering Land Rover’s flagship luxury SUVs, the award-winning Range Rover and Land Rover LR4, for lease at unprecedented low monthly prices. Glenwood Springs, CO (PRWEB) May 18, 2012 Land Rover Roaring Fork is proud to provide sales and service of the iconic Range Rover and the versatile Land Rover LR4, both winners of prestigious 2012 automotive awards. The Colorado dealership is currently offering the Range Rover for the lowest...

[ Watch the Video ] Lee Rannals for RedOrbit.com Having the "latest-and-greatest" disease has both advantages and disadvantages.  It’s a diagnosis with symptoms like keeping up to date with the newest technology, but filled with bad spells like desiring a cool gadget you can't afford. So given the state of my condition, attending the 2012 International Conference on Robotics and Automation doesn't exactly play out the best-case scenarios. Next on my bucket list of items I...

Members from NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission preformed a “test drive” of the Mars rover in Dumont Dunes in California's Mojave Desert last week. The test rover, similar to the rover Curiosity that is currently on its way to land on Mars in August, will expand understanding of the optimum method of controlling Curiosity when it is ready to explore Mars. Equipped with the same version of Curiosity’s mobility system, almost everything else on the test rover was removed in order...

Challenged to design a background for a small rover controlled from space, students in Germany have delivered a futuristic cityscape. The cool space art will be seen by astronauts in orbit via the rover’s camera eye as they remotely control their avatar later this year. The ultimate goal is for robot astronauts to roam around hazardous places like Mars and asteroids guided by human controllers safely orbiting overhead in their spacecraft. As a first step, ESA is linking the...