Mars Rovers Spirit and Opportunity Celebrated their 4 Earth years Anniversary as they work on into Year 5 of their missions, surpassing their original mission by 3 3/4 years.
Launch: August 2007
Arrival: May 25, 2008
Mission: To continue looking for water on Mars. It will land on the Icy Northern Pole and dig trenches to study the many layers of water ice near the surface.
Lauch: Fall, 2009
Arrival: October, 2010
Mission: Twice as big and three times as heavy as the Mars Exploration Rovers that are on Mars, the Mars Science Laboratory would collect martian soil samples and rock cores to analyze them for organic--living organisms--or the conditions that could have supported life on Mars thousands or millions of years ago.
In preparation for human missions to Mars in 2015 and beyond several more low cost scout missions will search out sites to build habitats and bring back soil and rock samples to study on Earth.