Spacecraft Classification

Rover Spacecraft
Sojourner Spacecraft
SOJOURNER
Electrically-powered rover spacecraft are designed, assembled, tested, launched, and operated by JPL as part of the effort to explore Mars. The first Mars Rover was carried by the Mars Pathfinder lander, which touched down on July 4, 1997. The small, highly successful solar-powered mobile system was named Sojourner. Its rocker-bogie mobility system proved so successful that the same system has been scaled up and used on all Mars rovers to date. Two Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, landed in 2004. These solar-powered rovers far exceeded their 90-Martian-day prime mission; Opportunity is still operating as of January 2013. The Mars Science Laboratory rover Curiosity, a fully-capable geology laboratory powered by radioisotope thermoelectric generators, touched down in 2012. Rover craft need to be semi-autonomous. While they are steerable from Earth, the delay inherent to radio communications between Earth and Mars means they must be able to make at least some decisions on their own as they move.
Our prime example of a rover spacecraft the famous Sojourner Rover, shown here in an image from the surface of Mars. Click the Sojourner image for details of the rover spacecraft. Other examples of rover spacecraft include:

Mars Exploration Rovers
Mars Science Laboratory
Lunokhod Russian Rovers
JPL Inflatable Rovers