Curiously, the rover that has been exploring the planet Mars since it touched the red planet August 6, 2012, just celebrated its 3000th day on Mars on January 12, 2021.
It is important to remember that they are Martian days we are talking about, which are known as soil and last 24 hours and 40 minutes. Mars Exploration Rover spent this admirable time navigating and investigating Martian climate and geology, in part to determine if Mars is habitable or has ever been in the past.. In December 2012, the Curiosity mission was expanded indefinitely, so it is possible to get a few more soils from this bad boy before he finally retires.
During its time on Mars, Curiosity traveled 14.87 miles and provided detailed images that you can explore on NASA. website. It also offers a multitude of onboard technologies that have the potential outside of space travel. The chemical and mineralogical instrument, or CheMin, for example, is designed to perform a chemical analysis of the powdery rock to determine the types and amounts of minerals that are present. But it also serves a purpose at the Getty Conservation Institute: it can be dated and evaluated works of art without causing them physical damage.
Curiosity will join him soon Perseverance rover, which launched ffrom Cape Canaveral, Florida, on July 30, 2020 and is scheduled to reach Mars in about five weeks, on February 18. Again, the purpose of this mission is to evaluate the composition of Mars to determine if it can be habitable. About 85% of the new rover is based on heritage hardware, because previous rovers have been so successful. The big change here is that Perseverance will have more high quality cameras to provide more detailed images. It is also designed to take rock samples back to Earth.