From the archives for 18720.053 Barsoom standard (January 2004 Earth calendar)
News flash from Gusev Crater and Meridiani Planum
. Echoing the events of four short (martian) years ago, two more large, rubbery objects fell from the sky. As before, the objects shed their skins shortly after landing. Each contained another alien robot larger than the one that landed in Ares Vallis. Old martian Gusev reports the robot has made a real mess of his crater, grinding on his rock pavements and leaving tracks in the sand. The robot has so far missed his pond and garden.
As always, we'll provide you with breaking news as it happens - meanwhile, back to your regular programming on Mars Mystery Theater ...
After just 7 (Earth) years we returned to the red planet in spectacular fashion. The Mars Exploration Rover program successfully landed two solar powered Rovers. The Rovers used the same landing method as the previous Pathfinder mission. Unlike Pathfinder, each lander contained a single Rover (no base station needed as all the instruments were on/in the Rovers). The basic design of all three rovers (Sojourner, Spirit & Opportunity) is the same but these Rovers are over twice the size and 17 times heavier than the mini-rover.
While we haven't included any experiments to look specifically for life (not since Viking), the Rovers do have cameras and instruments to look very closely at the surface and analyze its chemical composition. What they've found indicates Mars may have been very hospitable for life in the past. The Rovers vastly expanded the area that can be surveyed, from a few square meters around the fixed Viking landers, past the tens of square meters within range of the Sojourner mini-Rover, to kilometers of terrain.
Designed for a 90-day (90 martian sols) mission, Spirit lasted until 2010 when mechanical wear and a soft surface finally immobilized it. Unable to position itself to catch the winter sun on its solar panels, Spirit froze during the martian winter, having covered 7.7 km across Mars.
Opportunity continues to roam the surface, having covered over 34 km.
Yogi
Build notes - this is Erik/Ton's Rover from the downloads at Lower Hudson Valley or Ton's home page. Another teacher workshop door prize, the model is glued to a plywood base. I have a couple more glued to card-box bases similar to this earlier build.
The card base is probably more practical since it's light enough you can lift the display by the base or model without damage.