NASA Says You Can Drive Mars Rover, Search Underground Water In Mars Surface Via Mars Rover Game

A new Mars Rover game has been released in celebration for the Curiosity rover's fourth anniversary on Mars. NASA said that explorers can drive the Mars Rover along the dusty Martian surface in search of underground water.

The Mars Rover game is one of NASA's ways of letting people know of the current development in Mars exploration. "We are excited about a new way for people to engage with Curiosity's current adventures on Mars and future exploration by NASA's Mars 2020 rover, too" said Michelle Viotti of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The Mars Rover game will also help attract more interest in NASA's current and future Mars exploration. Driving Mars Rover can be tricky as its wheels break easily. The game illustrates one of the main goals of NASA's new Mars 2020 rover which is to see the geologic features of Mars' underground, ABC.NET reported.

Currently, the Mars Rover as it explores the desert surface of Mars can see signs that the planet used to have water. However, it does not have the tool to peek through the planet's subsurface. The new Mars rover that will be launched in 2020 is equipped with Radar Imager for Mars' Subsurface Experiment or RIMFAX, which is a ground penetrating radar. It detects water by sending radar waves then analyze the return radar signal to determine the material composition underground if it is made up of ice, rock, sand, and liquid water.

The Mars Rover plays a vital role in man's goal of human exploration in Mars as it is the first step of determining if Mars can even support life, let alone humans. Considering its significance, no wonder NASA wants more people be aware of this project. Mars Rover was developed by JPL and GAMEE and can now be downloaded from NASA's website, Natureworld News reported. It is available for android, iOS, and desktop players. The objective of the game is simple, drive the Mars rover gathering as much information as possible.