The Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV) featured at the top of the page was taken to the moon for exploration during Apollo missions 15, 16, and 17. The LRV was battery-powered and could support lunar exploration activities several kilometers outside of the landing site. On these missions rovers traveled 17.3, 16.6, and 22.3 miles respectively.

Numerous rovers have also been sent to Mars including Sojourner, Exploration, and and Curiosity. These rovers are shown below in the picture carousel.

Mars Pathfinder lander and its Sojourner rover were a technology demonstration of a new way to deliver an instrumented lander and the first-ever robotic rover to the surface of the red planet. The mission was conceived as the first of the Mars Environmental Survey (MESUR) program.

Mars Pathfinder used an innovative method of directly entering the Martian atmosphere, assisted by a parachute to slow its descent through the thin Martian atmosphere and a giant system of airbags to cushion the impact.

Mars Pathfinder returned 2.3 billion bits of information, including more than 16,500 images from the lander and 550 images from the rover, as well as more than 15 chemical analyses of rocks and soil and extensive data on winds and other weather factors.

In January 2004, two robotic geologists named Spirit and Opportunity- the Mars Exploration Rovers- landed on opposite sides of the red planet. With far greater mobility than the 1997 Mars Pathfinder rover, these robotic explorers have trekked for miles across the Martian surface, conducting field geology and making atmospheric observations. Carrying identical, sophisticated sets of science instruments, both rovers have found evidence of ancient Martian environments where intermittently wet and habitable conditions existed.

Curiosity set out to answer the question: Did Mars ever have the right environmental conditions to support small life forms called microbes? Early in its mission, Curiosity's scientific tools found chemical and mineral evidence of past habitable environments on Mars. It continues to explore the rock record from a time when Mars could have been home to microbial life.

The car-size rover is about as tall as a basketball player and uses a 7 foot-long arm to place tools close to rocks selected for study. Curiosity's large size allows it to carry an advanced kit of 10 science instruments. It has tools including 17 cameras, a laser to vaporize and study small pinpoint spots of rocks at a distance, and a drill to collect powdered rock samples. It hunts for special rocks that formed in water and/or have signs of organics.

• Demonstrated the ability to land a very large, heavy rover to the surface of Mars

• Demonstrated the ability to land more precisely in a 12.4-mile (20-kilometer) landing area

• Demonstrated long-range mobility on Mars for studying diverse environments and analyzing samples found in different settings

The Mars 2020 mission with its Perseverance rover is part of NASA's Mars Exploration Program, a long-term effort of robotic exploration of the Red Planet. The Mars 2020 mission addresses high-priority science goals for Mars exploration, including key Astrobiology questions about the potential for life on Mars. The mission takes the next step by not only seeking signs of habitable conditions on Mars in the ancient past, but also searching for signs of past microbial life itself. The Perseverance rover introduces a drill that can collect core samples of the most promising rocks and soils and set them aside in a "cache" on the surface of Mars. A future mission could potentially return these samples to Earth.

Perseverance will not be alone. Ingenuity, a helicopter and technology demonstration will test the first powered flight on Mars.