Mars Rovers: Oportunity And Spirit

The Mars Exploration Rover mission, also known as MERS, is the second mission sent to Mars that involved rovers. MERS aims to study Mars surface looking for clues about the past water activity on Mars. This information is vital to accomplish one of the goals of the mission: to find out whether life ever existed in Mars.

To do so, twin rovers, Opportunity and Spirit, were sent to different locations on opposite sides on Mars that were apparently affected by liquid water in the past, the Gusev Crater and Meridiani Planum.

Spirit was launched on June 10, 2003 and arrived to Mars on January 4, 2004, and Opportunity was launched on July 7, 2003 and arrived on January 25, 2004.

Mars Rovers: Sojourner

Sojourner was the first exploration rover sent to Mars. It was part of the Mars Pathfinder mission which consisted in sending to Mars a lander and rover. Sojouner traveled inside the lander, later named Carl Sagan Memorial Station, for almost seven moths arriving to the red planet's Aris Vallis region on July 4th, 1997.  The main goal of the Pathfinder mission was to demonstrate that it was possible to send a lander and a rover to another planet at a lower cost than previous missions. One day after the landing, on July 5th, the small rover was deployed, and made its first run on Mars soil.

OSHW Development Boards: Pinguino, Arduino, and Propeller Platform

Pinguino, Arduino and Propeller Platform are fully open source development boards that are available in the market. This is a brief summary about each one explaining their main characteristics trying to offer a simple guide for those who are looking for different options.