Every Mars rover, from Sojourner in 1997 to Perseverance today: six robots that drove on Mars, what each one found, what nearly killed it, and what finally stopped it. Four have gone silent. Two are still driving.
0:00 Six machines
1:30 Who got there first?
2:35 Sojourner: how small can a Mars rover be?
5:31 Spirit: what did a dead wheel dig up?
10:08 Opportunity: fourteen years on a 90-day plan
15:52 Curiosity: what can't the Sun take away?
21:53 Zhurong: what happened to China's rover?
24:44 Perseverance: what did it come to collect?
27:50 Ingenuity: can you fly on Mars?
30:28 Can anyone bring the samples home?
33:16 Which of them are still alive?
What this film does and does not claim: rover statuses are as of 20 Oct 2026. Zhurong has not been heard from since May 2022; China's last official statement (April 2023) called it dormant. "Potential biosignature" is NASA's wording: a possible sign of past life that needs more study, not a detection of life. No mission to return Perseverance's samples is funded as of October 2026. Opportunity's "my battery is low and it's getting dark" was a reporter's paraphrase, not a transmission. Airbag and sky-crane landing sequences are NASA/JPL animations; the Pathfinder bounce is shown with the same method's 2004 animation. China's Zhurong is shown only in NASA HiRISE orbital images. Dates are UTC unless stated.
Sources
- NASA/JPL mission pages and releases for Mars Pathfinder, Spirit, Opportunity, Curiosity, Perseverance and Ingenuity (1997–2026), incl. JPL 4 Nov 1997, 21 May 2007, 24 May 2011, 13 Feb 2019, 12 Mar 2013, 25 Jan 2024, 11 Dec 2024, 12 Oct 2026
- Squyres et al., Science 320:1063 (2008); Morris et al., Science 329:421 (2010)
- NASA, "NASA Says Mars Rover Discovered Potential Biosignature Last Year" (10 Sep 2025); Hurowitz et al., Nature 645:332 (2025)
- Zhurong: Xinhua/CASC (May 2021), China News / CCTV (May 2022), CGTN (Apr 2023), Liu et al. Sci. Adv. (2022), Li et al. Nature (2022), Qin et al. Sci. Adv. (2023), Li et al. PNAS (2025)
- Mars Sample Return: NASA (Jan 2025, Sep 2026 page), OMB FY2026 request (May 2025), FY2026 appropriations (Jan 2026)
- InSight and Viking: NASA mission pages
Visuals: NASA/JPL-Caltech, Cornell, ASU, MSSS, University of Arizona (HiRISE), Texas A&M, NASA Scientific Visualization Studio, NASA KSC. Thumbnail: composite of photos and NASA renders, not to scale; Zhurong image CNSA / China News Service, CC BY 4.0 (youtube.com/watch?v=BnrwZVJ_VAQ). Animations and simulations are labelled on screen. Music and sound effects are original; data cards are original graphics.
Narration is a synthetic voice. Independent production, not affiliated with or endorsed by NASA, JPL or CNSA.
Which of these six would you most want to see again? Tell us in the comments.
