Robots of the Red Planet: Meet the Machines Behind NASA’s Mars Exploration

Human spaceflight to Mars is yet to happen, with the development of NASA's Orion capsule still underway. But already NASA is making breakthrough discoveries in their Martian exploration, with the help of its crew of robotic comrades currently roving the planet.

Here are the five robots that are helping NASA and the Earth know more about the neighboring Red Planet.

1. Curiosity Rover

The Curiosity Rover or Mars Science Laboratory is designed to determine the planet's habitability by assessing whether Mars ever had an environment capable of supporting small life forms or microbes. The rover, which is considered one of NASA's most ambitious interplanetary missions, landed on Mars' Gale Crater in 2012. Its mission was supposed to end after two years, but NASA decided to extend Curiosity's exploration of Mars indefinitely.

Curiosity was able to find evidence that Mars once held liquid water. In 2014, the rover also found the organic chemical methane in Mars' atmosphere, which could be linked to microbial life. The discovery will be the basis for a manned mission to Mars.