NASA's Mars Exploration Rover mission has involved multiple rovers exploring the surface of Mars since 2003, providing images and analyzing rocks and soil to search for evidence of past water activity. The mission's objectives were to characterize the geology and search for signs of water. Rover findings over the years have included bizarre rock formations thought to be formed by water or impact processes, sand dunes, panoramic views of the landscape, and microscopic images of pebbles showing signs of past water activity.

1. Red Planet
MARS

2. NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Mission (MER) is
an ongoing robotic space mission involving
rovers Spirit, Opportunity and now Curiosity,
exploring the planet Mars. It began in 2003 with
the sending of the two rovers, Spirit and
Opportunity, to explore the Martian surface and
geology and continues today.
The mission’s scientific objective was to search
for and characterize a wide range of rocks and
soils that hold clues to past water activity on
Mars. The mission is part of NASA’s Mars
Exploration Program, which includes three
previous successful landers: the two Viking
program landers in 1976 and Mars Pathfinder
probe in 1997.

3. An image taken by the Mars rover Opportunity shows a bizarre, lumpy rock informally named
Wopmay on the lower slopes of Endurance Crater. Scientists believe the lumps in Wopmay
were formed by one of two processes. Either they were caused by the impact that created the
football field-sized crater, or they arose when water soaking the rock dried up, said the
scientists.

4. Martian sand dunes are seen in this image taken by NASA's Mars
Rover Opportunity. The dunes in the foreground are approximately 3
feet (1 meter) high.

5. This image mosaic taken by the panoramic camera on board the Mars
Exploration Rover Spirit shows the rover's landing site, the Columbia
Memorial Station, at Gusev Crater, Mars.

6. In this photo released by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA's
Mars rover Spirit looks out over red slopes, valleys, plains and its
own wheel tracks in this 360-degree panorama. Spirit and its
twin rover Opportunity have found evidence of past water
activity on the Red Planet since landing in January 2004.

7. Gusev Crater - the landscape shows little variation in local topography,
though a narrow peak only seven to eight kilometers away is visible
on the horizon. A circular depression, similar to the one dubbed Sleepy
Hollow, can be seen in the foreground.

8. Color Panorama of 'Santa Maria' Crater for Opportunity's Anniversary
NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity is spending the seventh
anniversary of its landing on Mars investigating a crater called "Santa
Maria," which has a diameter about the length of a football field.

9. Opportunity's Eighth Anniversary View From 'Greeley Haven' (False
Color). This mosaic of images taken in mid-January 2012 shows the
windswept vista northward (left) to northeastward (right) from the
location where NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity is
spending its fifth Martian winter, an outcrop informally named
"Greeley Haven."

10. In this photo released by NASA, a view of Victoria crater is seen
looking north from "Duck Bay" towards the dramatic promontory
called "Cape Verde."

11. "Intrepid" crater on Mars carries the name of the lunar module of
NASA's Apollo 12 mission, which landed on Earth's moon Nov. 19,
1969.

12. East Hills - The hills are the most promising place to find the geologic
evidence Spirit was sent to find -that the frozen, dry planet once was a
warmer, wetter world capable of supporting life. NASA plans to send
the rover towards the hills, which are at a distance of about five times
Spirit's maximum driving range, meaning the rover could die on the
way unless it far outlives.

13. This true color image taken
by the panoramic camera
onboard the Mars rover
Spirit shows "Adirondack,"
the rover's first target rock.

14. This crater -- with a diameter of about 14 miles (22 kilometers) -- is
more than 25 times wider than any that Opportunity has previously
approached during the rover's 90 months on Mars.

15. The Mars rover's microscopic
imager found these
intriguing round pebbles.

16. This approximate true-color image taken by the panoramic camera on
the Mars Exploration rover Opportunity shows the impact crater
known as "Endurance," in this photo released by NASA May 6, 2004.

17. NASA's Mars Exploration rover Spirit used its panoramic
camera to take the images that make up this full-resolution
mosaic of the "Columbia Hills," on Mars.

18. This true color image shows
"sashimi," left, and "sushi,"
right, enroute the rover's first
target rock (not shown).

19. This composite photo released by NASA was created by combining
hundreds of images taken by the panoramic camera on NASA's Mars
Exploration rover Spirit between Aug. 24 and Aug. 27, 2005 into a 360-
degree view called "Husband Hill Summit." Part of the rover's deck is
seen in the foreground.

20. The rover captured this false
color view of a dark boulder
with an interesting surface
texture. The boulder sits about
40 centimeters (16 inches) tall
on Martian sand about 5
meters (16 feet) away from
Spirit. It is one of many dark,
volcanic rock fragments --
many pocked with rounded
holes called vesicles -- littering
the slope of "Low Ridge." The
rock surface facing the rover is
similar in appearance to the
surface texture on the outside
of lava flows on Earth.

21. In this photo made by the Mars rover Opportunity and released in this
Oct. 2006 file photo, by NASA shows a view of the "Victoria crater"
looking southeast from "Duck Bay." A newly discovered asteroid has a
1 in 75 chance of slamming into the Red Planet on Jan. 30, 2008,
scientists said Thursday, Dec. 20, 2007.

22. In the center of this photo
is the large volcanic rock
nicknamed Mazatzal in
which the NASA/JPL Mars
rover Spirit found traces of
water that had flowed
through tiny fissures that
crisscrossed the boulder
and cemented together
the multiple layers that
mask its surface.

23. Mars Rover

24. ENDE
ALLE RECHTE AN DIESER
PRÄSENTATION,
INSBESONDERE AUF BEARBEITUNG
UND UMGESTALTUNG LIEGEN BEIM
AUTOR…
K & H - PPS
Fotos: AP Photo NASA
Music: Timeless in Space
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