The launch in late 1996 of the Mars Pathfinder mission with its Sojourner rover then was exciting news indeed. Before Spirit, the exceptionally long-lived Opportunity, and the relatively huge ...

The first time, he uses it is to help heat Rover 2 during an expedition to find Pathfinder, a NASA Mars lander whose mission ended in 1997, the one that contained the first bug on Mars.

Mars Pathfinder, which landed in 1997, was aptly named. Spirit, Opportunity, and the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity have all followed. Author Rob Manning, who has worked at the Jet Propulsion ...