Mars Pathfinder

More recent missions to Mars include the hugely successful Mars Pathfinder, which landed a small 'rover' called Sojourner on the surface to explore a region where there may once have been life. | Similarly the lander, which imaged several areas around the landing site (dubbed the Carl Sagan Memorial site) and took atmospheric measurements, lasted a good deal longer than expected. | Sojourner has now been effectively switched off, but lasted almost twelve times its expected lifetime. | The only unfortunate thing to have arisen from the mission is the naming of the rocks at the landing site (including everything from Scooby-Doo to Darth Vader).