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Spirit and Opportunity are the names of the two most recent vehicles that have been sent to the surface of Mars by NASA. They both landed in January 2004, on opposite sides of the planet. The mission have been a huge success, far beyond expectations. They are still in operation today, way beyond their initial 90 day target, although Spirit became stuck in the sand in May 2009 and is now just a stationary observational platform.

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8y ago
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11y ago

The name of the first robot to explore Mars was "Sojourner". Sojourner was a rover robot. Sojourner weighed 24 pounds on Earth, but only 9 pounds on Mars. This robot was about the size of a child's wagon. Sojourner was a very slow robot. He could only move 2 feet per minute. Even though Sojourner was slow, he was used to complete many tasks.

Comment: It depends how you define a robot. I would say the "Viking" landers were robots, even though they were not able to move around.

In that case "Viking 1" and "Viking 2" were the first robots to successfully land on Mars and do useful work. "Viking 1" was just first, by a short time, ahead of its "twin".

So the answer is, probably, "Viking 1".

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13y ago

There have been several robotic landers and rovers sent to Mars. The ones which landed and deployed successfully are:

Viking 1 (1976)

Viking 2 (1976)

Mars Exploration Rover A "Spirit" (2004)

Mars Exploration Rover B "Opportunity" (2004)

Phoenix (2008)

Of those, only Spirit and Opportunity are still operational.

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8y ago

It might depend on what is intended by "robot". Several landers were motionless but had robotic arms used to sample soil. Several missions intended for landing and surface operations, and at least one intended to be an orbiter, crashed on the surface. One intended to crash (Deep Space 2) may not arguably have been considered robotic, and failed to communicate. As of early 2016, two continue to be mobile and still roam the Martian surface (Curiosity, and Opportunity). A complete list of artificial objects on mars which had at least some robotic capability should include the USSR "Mars 2" "Mars 3" and "Mars 6" (all failed); the United States "Viking 1" "Viking 2" landers, "Sojourner" (from Pathfinder); "Mars Polar Lander" (crashed); "Spirit" "Opportunity" "Phoenix" and "Curiosity" (Mars Science Lab); and the UK's "Beagle 2" which experienced failures. The four with a wheeled design, and which were successfully mobilized, were Sojourner, Spirit, Opportunity, and Curiosity.

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12y ago

rover

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15y ago

Rover

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11y ago

The Rover

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Q: What was the name of the first robot on Mars?
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